NEWS

Annual Progress Report Released for Massachusetts State Plan on Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias

Mar 29, 2023

During calendar year 2022, the Advisory Council on Alzheimer’s Disease and All Other
Dementias continued its work to implement the recommendations presented in the
Massachusetts State Plan on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias, April 2021 (state
plan). This year’s annual report documents the Council’s progress during 2022 and its next steps
for the year ahead.

James Fuccione from the Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative and Patty Sullivan from Massachusetts Councils on Aging/Dementia Friendly Mass. coordinate a workgroup under the Advisory Council that advances the concept of Dementia Friendly Physical Infrastructure. With a dedicated group of planners, architects and other stakeholders, the group created a resource of design considerations, which was recently featured in Massachusetts Planning –  the quarterly magazine published by the state chapter of the American Planning Association. The resource, “Age and Dementia Friendly Design Considerations for Physical Infrastructure,” offers suggestions and recommendations across four physical infrastructure categories: Buildings, Public Outdoor Spaces, Transportation and Housing Developments.

The Council’s progress report is the third annual report and its second since April 2021 when it published
the Massachusetts State Plan on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (state plan).

Since April 2021, the Council has been using the state plan as its roadmap to better meet the needs
of the Commonwealth’s 130,000 residents diagnosed with dementia, supported by 284,000
family caregivers, and an estimated 130,000 or more residents currently living with dementia
without a formal diagnosis. Specifically, the state plan includes recommendations and
implementation plans around seven focus areas, or “workstreams,” which appear here in
alphabetical order:

1. Caregiver Support and Public Awareness
2. Diagnosis and Services Navigation
3. Equitable Access and Care
4. Physical Infrastructure
5. Public Health Infrastructure
6. Quality of Care
7. Research

The full progress report is available here.