Uplift
What does UPLIFT address?
- Research has shown that people with dementia could benefit from palliative care
- Palliative care improves symptom management, reduces burdensome treatment, reduces hospital visits, and improves family satisfaction
- About 70% of people with advanced dementia will live their final days in a nursing facility
How will UPLIFT improve care?
UPLIFT is a research-informed model of care
It improves palliative care by:
Training nursing home UPLIFT palliative champions
Educating nursing home staff on basic palliative care
Facilitating access to external palliative care experts
Integrating primary and specialty palliative care to provide compassionate care
How does UPLIFT work?
In-house palliative champions — At least 2 nursing home staff members will receive structured training on:
- Palliative care, symptom management, dementia specific care
External palliative care consultants —
- Gilchrist-based palliative care consult team
- Will work with residents and their families to establish or clarify treatment goals and provide medical symptom management
We need your help!
We will contact you as the surrogate decision maker to ask if you are interested in participating in the research. This will include data collection about the resident and surveys for you to complete.
What are the benefits of participating?
The advance care planning will likely prompt discussions regarding preferences, quality-of-life, and symptoms. Participation in these discussions may result in closer alignments between you and your family member’s care preferences and the treatments they receive
How are we addressing COVID-19 concerns?
- Any face to face visits will involve facility-based protective measures and CDC best practices
- Most interactions, however, will be conducted via phone or video conferencing
- Face to face interactions will be conducted by staff well-trained in nursing home COVID protocols
Our Study Team
| Kathleen Unroe, MD, MHA Mary Ersek, PhD, RN, FPCN Lieve van den Block, MSc, PhD Ruth Anderson, RN, PhD, FAAN Jessica Orth, PhD, MS, MPH Jodi Lamie, BA |
John Cagle, PhD, MSW Wanzhu Tu, PhD Alex Floyd, BS Todd Becker MSW Peiyuan Zhang, MSW |
Who do I contact?
University of Maryland Baltimore:
Dr. John Cagle, (410)706.6106, [email protected]
Dr. Jessica Orth, [email protected]
Indiana University:
Dr. Kathleen Unroe, (317) 274-9227, [email protected]
Alex Floyd, 317-274-9164, [email protected]