The AWARD Network published a Request for Applications in September, 2023, for its first cycle of Pilot Awards. These Awards are to support early-stage research on the workforce that serves people living with dementia. The Awards are for up to $20,000 for one-year projects.
We are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2024 Pilot Awards. Recipients were selected from an impressive group of competitive applications.
2024 AWARD Network Pilot Award Recipients:
Emerald Jenkins, PhD, DNP, RN, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing
“Use of the Health Equity Framework to Characterize Multi-Level Factors Correlated with Pain and the Receipt of the Direct Care Workforce in Older Adults with Dementia”
Despite the importance of the direct care workforce in pain management, little is known about people of color, and marginalized, vulnerable persons living with dementia (PLWD) with pain and their care arrangements and costs of care. For the population of PLWD and pain, using National Health and Aging Trends Study data our objectives are to: (1) characterize multi-level factors correlated with pain, and (2) identify predictors of direct care workforce use for caregivers; using several databases we will also conduct a systematic review to (3) determine efficacious pain interventions.
Katherine Miller, PhD, and Karen Shen, PhD, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
“State Policy Responses to COVID-19 and Workforce Dynamics: Examining Industry Exit Trends for Direct Care Workers and Firms”
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated direct care staffing challenges in many industries and threatened the financial viability of many long-term care providers. Our objective is to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on both long-term care worker turnover and closures of home health and home care agencies, and whether state policies, such as reimbursement rate increases and targeted wage supports, mediated these impacts.