About Us
Mission
AgeSpan, based in the Merrimack Valley of Massachusetts is an Agency on Aging (AAA) and an Aging Services Access Points (ASAP). AgeSpan's mission is to serve as a trusted, impartial resource connecting people of all ages and abilities and their caregivers with information, quality services and advocacy.
CDDER, based at the EK Shriver Center at the UMass Chan Medical School, provides valuable research, evaluation, and training services in order to enhance the quality of supports and services for people with IDD.
In 2020, AgeSpan and CDDER joined forces, under a federal grant, to create training designed to provide a deeper understanding of IDD and dementia. These pages contain that training.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the staff at Bridgewell and Waystone for their work on developing this training. They provided valuable input to the content as well as testing the materials. In addition, we would like to thank all the AgeSpan and CDDER staff who provided support in designing, writing, editing, and recording these trainings.
Thank you to all the caregivers out there, both paid and non-paid who provide ongoing support to those with IDD and dementia.
Audience
The material in this training is introductory in nature and designed for a variety of non-paid caregivers. It introduces the terms, definitions and lived experiences of people with IDD and dementia. It is designed to provide tips on how to respond to and how to support someone you care for with dementia. It is not intended for clinicians, or those with an already in-depth knowledge of IDD and dementia (although all would benefit).