Outreach, Recruitment, and Engagement

The Outreach, Recruitment and Engagement (ORE) Core plays a central role in achieving UK-Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC) goals by functioning as a key link between the Center and the local and state communities. ORE Core programs and activities have created and will maintain educated communities throughout Kentucky who are eager to receive updated information on brain health, ADRD, and to participate in our UK-ADRC and affiliated research projects. ORE Core activities include recruitment and retention of normal and at-risk participants into a longitudinal cohort with annual clinical examinations and brain donation upon death. Other activities involve the development and testing of innovative outreach and engagement activities in the community to increase awareness of AD/ADRD plus the importance of research, research participation, and research protections.  We will continue to emphasize recruitment and retention of research participants at the earliest stages of the cognitive continuum. These efforts involve engaging these participants in the UK-ADRC longitudinal cohort, as well as activities to enhance agreement to brain donation, willingness to engage in affiliated clinical studies and therapeutic trials, and donation of antemortem biospecimens. In collaboration with the Clinical Core, we plan to expand our outreach efforts to maximize engagement through the “Be-BRIGHT” engagement model that seeks to overcome barriers to research participation. We will continue to further engage people in Kentucky and surrounding regions.  We will maintain and further build on these efforts and partnerships through the following specific aims:

Goals of the Core

The Outreach, Recruitment, and Education (ORE) Core functions as a vital link between the UK-Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC) and local and state communities to:

Recruiting and Retaining Research Participants

Pursuing Greater Participation by African Americans

A primary function of this core is to support the recruitment and retention of participants for research and to provide programs that stimulate research by faculty and students. Efforts developed with the African-American population at the Minority Gateway Satellite Clinic have expanded so that UK-ADRC research studies reflect greater participation by African Americans, the largest minority group in Kentucky.

The Friends of the African-American Dementia Outreach Partnership  (AADOP) Advisory Council was created to improve dementia awareness and care through communication and consultation between SBCoA and the African-American community. Leaders from within this community were recruited to collaborate in the education, interests, concerns, and needs in the African-American community with regard to Alzheimer’s and dementia.

The Balm in Gilead, Inc. (B I G) has become a close partner with SBCoA. This organization has over 30 years of experience through ministry, dealing with health disparities that impact the African-American community in a higher degree than other groups. The strong collaboration with (B I G) began when they sought information from SBCoA and materials to include memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease as a health disparity to concentrate on. Through their ministry and programs such as Healthy Churches and Memory, collaboration with (B I G) in these programs has increased SBCoA outreach efforts and results every year since the partnership began five years ago.    

Outreach to Build Awareness

The ORE Core designs outreach to increase awareness of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias for patients, family members, the general public, and community organizations that provide care for dementia patients. Community awareness programs emphasize the importance of research and encourage participation in studies available through our center.

Through partnerships with national, state, and local organizations and other ADRCs, this core designs and offers dementia-specific training to meet the needs of health care and other professional audiences. These programs promote improved health and services for patients and their family members throughout Kentucky. Research has been enhanced through a variety of regularly scheduled programs to educate investigators about Alzheimer's disease and to foster increased collaboration among faculty and students from diverse disciplines.

Programs developed by this core are systematically evaluated to determine short- and long-term outcomes and to aid in decision making.

Education Programs

Educational programs at SBCoA are coordinated through the ORE Core. Programs include monthly seminars on Alzheimer’s disease for professionals and students. Community events are offered in collaboration with the local Alzheimer’s Association and groups such as the Area Agency on Aging. One of our most popular programs is the Dementia Caregiver Workshop for family caregivers. This half-day program is offered quarterly.   Professional and community conferences on topics of special interest are offered through the UK-ADRC and products are developed to meet community needs, e.g., the Book of Alzheimer’s for African-American Churches. Faculty and staff make numerous presentations in Lexington and surrounding areas.  To find out more about upcoming programs, visit https://medicine.uky.edu/centers/sbcoa/events.

Postdoctoral Scholars and Graduate Students Training

Numerous postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, or visiting faculty have been trained and/or mentored by SBCoA faculty.

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