Caring for a family member with dementia creates both challenges and opportunities for families. Strong social connections can help caregivers manage the challenges, but the demands of caregiving sometimes create obstacles to social connections. When this happens, caregivers may experience social isolation and loneliness, adding to stress, low quality of life, and increased risk for poor health.
A new center at the University of Rochester is bringing together researchers to find new and innovative ways to promote social connectedness and the overall health of older adults caring for a loved one with dementia.
The Roybal Center for Social Ties and Aging Research (STAR), a joint initiative between the UR School of Nursing and the Department of Psychiatry, is funded by a $3.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The center will focus on fostering collaboration among researchers to make a significant impact on the problem of social disconnection in older caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease and other related dementias (ADRD). Its major activity will be funding pilot studies through its annual Pilot Award Program. Requests for proposals will be announced in the next several months.
“We are thrilled to be launching a center committed to the well-being of caregivers,” said Kathi Heffner, PhD, an associate professor of nursing, psychiatry, and medicine, who is co-principal investigator on the center grant. “We hope it enriches our already strong collaborations in aging research and, through the pilot program, brings more University of Rochester investigators into aging research.”
Heffner will co-direct the center with Kimberly Van Orden, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and co-principal investigator on the center grant. The STAR Center builds on a growing foundation of aging research at the UR Medical Center (URMC). Heffner is also the associate chief of research for the URMC Division of Geriatrics and Aging in the Department of Medicine.
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