The Living Alone with Cognitive Impairment Project has the goal to enhance the well-being of older adults living alone with cognitive impairment in the United States, as well as worldwide. Our initiatives are meant to:
- Ensure that policies and programs are designed to support older adults living alone with cognitive impairment, who often have limited supports from caregivers.
- Promote and support all kind of research to illuminate challenges, as well as best practices on to living alone with cognitive impairment. Elena Portacolone is available to share protocols (e.g., recruitment methods, consent protocols) to allow researchers to expand research on living alone with cognitive impairment.
- Disseminate public policy recommendations
- Support journalists writing articles on living alone
- Serve policy makers, clinicians, researchers by creating collaborations, presenting data, connecting with colleagues.
Our briefs offer rigorous information about the estimated 4.3 million older adults living alone with cognitive impairment in the United States and recommendations on ensuring that the diagnosis of cognitive impairment empowers them. All briefs can be found here, on the "Policy Briefs" page of our website. Stay tuned for future briefs!
In the United States it is estimated that 4.3 million older adults live alone with cognitive impairment, which represents 25% of older adults living with cognitive impairment. Cognitive impairment can range from mild cognitive impairment to dementia.¹
“I have a hard time remembering now. I really hate that. That’s tearing me apart. And I don’t know what to do about that.”
— Black Woman living alone with cognitive impairment