Request for Proposals for Healthy Brain Community Grant – Minnesota - fundsforNGOs

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Aging and Healthy Communities Unit’s Healthy Brain Initiative is requesting proposals to reach and engage communities in Minnesota impacted by Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias to improve brain health.

Donor Name: Minnesota Department of Health (MDH)

State: Minnesota

County: All Counties

Type of Grant: Grant

Deadline: 11/12/2024

Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000

Grant Duration: 3 Years

Details:

The focus is on engaging communities disproportionately impacted by underdiagnosis and misdiagnosis. These communities include Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC); Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ+); American Indian; people living with disabilities; and communities in Greater Minnesota.

The Minnesota Healthy Brain Community Grant Program funds organizations to do the following community work:

Educate communities about dementia risk reduction
Understand the importance of early detection and diagnosis
Provide support for people living with dementia and their caregivers.

Project proposals will demonstrate how organizations create, improve, or amplify brain health messages and strategies that reduce dementia risk, detect and diagnose dementia earlier, and support people living with dementia and their care partners.

Funding Information

Estimated Annual Award: $20,000.
Estimated Award Maximum for 3 years: $60,000.

Grant Period

The estimated grant start date is March 3, 2025, and the projected end date is Sept. 29, 2028.

Eligible Projects

Projects must create or enhance risk reduction, early diagnosis, and caregiver wellbeing strategies as they align with the Minnesota Dementia Strategic Plan. Below are some examples of what this could look like:

Risk Reduction Strategies
- Reduce Stigma: Work with communities to create messages that address misinformation and provide an accurate understanding about dementia.
  - Example: Partner with local community leaders and organizations to develop accurate, culturally and linguistically relevant messages about dementia risk, and find creative ways to share these messages with the community.
- Eliminate Discrimination: Work with communities to address discrimination and build welcoming spaces, programs, and care for people living with dementia and their care partners.
  - Example: Partner with local schools and after school programs to increase Dementia Friendly Communities and create space for intergenerational social interactions
  - Example: Provide Reframing Aging Framework training to staff at local community organization to combat ageism and be more inclusive and welcoming to people living with dementia.
- Raise Awareness: Teach people about dementia, including what causes it, how early detection and diagnosis can help, and the importance of caregiver health and well-being.
  - Example: Partner with trusted messengers to educate the community about uncontrolled high blood pressure as a risk factor for dementia.
Early Diagnosis Strategies
- Raise Awareness: Teach people about dementia, including what causes it, how early detection and diagnosis can help, and the importance of caregiver health and well-being.
  - Example: Engage diverse rural communities to develop and disseminate messages about the importance of early detection and diagnosis.
- Increase Screening and Detection: Support clinics and community-based organizations that serve communities with health inequities to increase screening and early detection.
  - Example: Adapt current screening tools to be more relevant to specific communities and test the adapted tool to see if it has increased screening rates in the community.
- Coordinate Resources: Promote and help people to use tools and resources that can prevent and detect dementia early and improve care.
  - Example: Partner with key community organizations in the local area to create a central hub that connects care partners and people living with dementia to community-specific resources and services in Greater MN.
- Build Connections: Improve relationships and referrals between community organizations and clinics to better support families and people living with dementia.
  - Example: Collaborate with health care clinic to implement a warm hand-off process to improve referrals between caregivers, social service staff and health care teams.
Caregiver Support Strategies
- Offer Training: Create and share ongoing training and materials for people who care for those living with dementia.
  - Example: Add free dementia curriculum to continuing education for all care team members including personal care assistants and community health workers.
- Advance Shared Action: Unite communities and organizations to co-create and lead actions using culturally responsive language and practices that lower the risk of dementia, detect it earlier, and support the well-being of people with dementia and their caregivers.
  - Example: Design creative social gatherings and connections that support care partners and people living with dementia at monthly luncheons and karaoke nights to increase and improve social community connections.
- Support People with Dementia: Help people living with dementia and their care partners understand the disease, plan for future changes, and find services that can help.
  - Example: Partner with church that offers respite so that caregivers can have time for self-care.