Melanin Minded's Bridge Youth Elite 8 Program Bridges the Gap in Dementia Care for Hidden Care Partners, Advocating for Person-Centered Support

The Challenge

Among people 65 and older, African Americans and Hispanics have the highest prevalence of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias. For people of color, there is a strong cultural expectation for family members to provide care in the home for their loved ones living with dementia and much of that caregiving responsibility falls to adolescent family members. These adolescents are considered hidden care partners in family caregiving systems and are providing this care with little or no training.

The Solution

Melanin Minded has formed the Bridge Youth Elite 8 program to meet this need. This program engages small groups of youth of color who are an invisible group of care partners for elders throughout the nation. Within each cohort, young adults participate in carefully crafted education and training experiences offered by Melanin Minded staff who also bring in key industry leaders from their local area to support awareness and skill-building around many topics of aging, including dementia.

Dementia Live® is one component of training that The Bridge Youth Program is providing for these adolescent care partners. In addition to learning skills related to Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLS), Dementia Live gives them a first-hand experience of living with dementia.

"We could not have done the Dementia Live simulation without AGE-u-cate and the training they put together that was easy to understand, follow, and implement."

The Results

Through the Bridge Youth Elite 8 program , and with the support of Melanin Minded’s leader, Dr. Easter, a group of adolescent care partners recently took a trip to Washington, D.C. to put their knowledge into action, advocating on Capitol Hill to raise awareness for this silent generation of critical family care partners. More than 80 families and youth have experienced Dementia Live with Melanin Minded and now have a better understanding of person-centered care. The common response from families is that they need this type of training and information because they haven’t been able to find it elsewhere.

Key Benefits: 

• Empowering young care partners

• First-hand experience with dementia for adolescent care partners

• Advocacy and awareness for young care partners

• Filling gaps in dementia resources

• Educating adolescents with certifiable workforce skills

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