This webguide covers federal government agencies, bureaus and institutes
that support Alzheimer's research and education, programs that care for
persons with the disease, and statistics and data on the disease.
ADEAR
The U.S. Congress created the Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral
(ADEAR) Center in 1990 to "compile, archive, and disseminate information
concerning Alzheimer's disease" for health professionals, people with AD
and their families, and the public.
Veteran's Affairs MIRECC
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has developed a program of
Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC).
MIRECCs are designed to bring state-of-the-art research, educational and
clinical activities to select VA regional areas or Networks. The
Dementia Clinical Core focuses first on patients with Post-traumatic Stress
Disorder (PTSD) and behavioral problems associated with Alzheimer's Disease
and related dementias and will investigate the practical usefulness of
new pharmacological treatments for veterans with dementia.
Find an Alzheimer's Disease Center (ADC):
NIH SeniorHealth
Online learning site developed by the National Institute on Aging and
the National Library of Medicine
to make aging-related health information easily accessible for adults 60
and older, as well as their family members and friends. Topics include:
Alzheimer's disease, caring for someone with Alzheimer's, and exercise
for older adults. This is a talking web site. Click the "Turn Speech On"
button at the top of the page to hear the text read aloud. On any page,
click the content to hear the information.
HSTAT
Health Services Technology Assessment Texts (HSTAT) is a free, Web-based
resource of full-text documents that provide health information and support
health care decision making. HSTAT's audience includes health care providers,
health service researchers, policy makers, payers, consumers and the information
professionals who serve these groups. HSTAT also provides links to
external databases, including the National Library of Medicine's (NLM)
PubMed®,
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Prevention Guidelines
Database, and the National Guideline Clearinghouse.
NICHSR
The 1993 NIH Revitalization Act created a National Information Center
on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR) at the
National Library of Medicine to improve "..the collection, storage, analysis,
retrieval, and dissemination of information on health services research,
clinical practice guidelines, and on health care technology, including
the assessment of such technology." The overall goals of the NICHSR
are: to make the results of health services research, including practice
guidelines and technology assessments, readily available to health practitioners,
health care administrators, health policy makers, payers, and the information
professionals who serve these groups; to improve access to data and information
needed by the creators of health services research; and to contribute to
the information infrastructure needed to foster patient record systems
that can produce useful health services research data as a by-product of
providing health care.
Terra Nova Films
Terra Nova Films produces and distributes videos dealing exclusively
with aging related issues. They have over 50 videos on all aspects
of Alzheimer's Disease, including Alzheimer's Disease: Natural Feeding
Techniques. This is a 14-minute video produced by the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs that demonstrates how caregiving staff
manage feeding difficulties for patients in the late stage of Alzheimer's.
Includes three case studies that show how oral feeding techniques as opposed
to tube feeding, can decrease infection, increase patient comfort and improve
overall quality of life for the patient.
healthfinder®
healthfinder® is an award-winning Federal Web site, developed by
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
together
with other Federal agencies. Since 1997, healthfinder® has been
recognized as a key resource for finding the best government and nonprofit
health and human services information on the Internet. healthfinder®
links to carefully selected information and Web sites from over 1,700 health-related
organizations.
The Department of Health and Human Services
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the United States
government's principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans
and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least
able to help themselves.
DALTCP
The Office of Disability, Aging and Long-Term Care Policy (DALTCP)
is charged with developing, analyzing, evaluating and coordinating HHS
policies and programs which support the independence, productivity, health
and long-term care needs of children, working age adults and older persons
with disabilities.
Medicare
& Medicaid
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has clarified
the coverage for Alzheimer’s disease to make it clear about how Medicare
processes claims for patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Medicare
contractors can no longer automatically deny claims based solely on the
Alzheimer’s diagnosis. This does not guarantee that all claims for Alzheimer’s
patients will be paid. Instead, Medicare contractors review these claims
based on the beneficiary’s overall medical condition. This means that
Medicare may pay for speech, occupational and rehabilitation therapies
for people with Alzheimer’s, including mental health services.
Bureau of Primary
Health Care
The mission of this federal agency is to increase access to comprehensive
primary health care for underserved persons age 50+ using innovative outreach
enrollment strategies, by increasing reimbursement, and raising the quality
of geriatric care, including persons with Alzheimer's Disease, in community-based
sites supported by the Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC). The
BPHC publishes The
Geriatric Directory, which offers pathways to a majority of geriatric
information resources to assist providers of primary health care on issues
related to caring for and serving citizens 65 years and older. This
publication is in PDF format.
This webguide created on November 30, 2003 by Debbie Whittemore.
CLIS 734
Fall 2003
University of South Carolina