Grants for Quality of Life for Older Adults

Grants for Quality of Life for Older Adults is sponsored by Archstone Foundation. The Archstone Foundation supports emerging and unmet needs within the field of aging, with a focus on enabling older adults to remain in their homes and communities, improving late-life depression treatment, developing innovative responses to family caregiving needs, and expandi…

Depression in Late-Life- Archstone From 2014 until 2021, the Foundation supported innovative approaches to improving the quality of life for older adults suffering from depression.

Archstone Foundation launched its Depression in Late-Life Initiative in June 2014, by awarding a four-year grant to the University of Washington (UW), and the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), to support the Care Partners: Bridging Families, Clinics, and Communities to Advance Late-Life Depression Care project.

Through its Depression in Late-Life Initiative, the Foundation sought to improve the quality of life for adults, 65 and older, suffering from depression.

Care Partners tested innovative approaches to treating depression through community-engaged partners working together to strengthen the involvement of family, friends, and community-based organizations (CBOs) in providing enhanced collaborative care for depressed older adults offered in the primary care setting or in the community.

Collaborative care is a proven, evidence-based patient-centered approach that treats mental health conditions, like depression, in primary care or in the community where older adults are already comfortable and have secure, established relationships.

Care Partners - Phase 1 Projects (2015 - 2017) Beginning in 2015, Archstone Foundation provided support to seven Care Partners projects in California: Primary Care Clinic & Community-Based Organization Partnership El Sol Neighborhood Educational Center – Social Action Community Health System (SACHS) Family Health Centers of San Diego – Serving Seniors Institute on Aging – University of California, San Francisco LifeLong Medical Care – St.

Mary’s Center Sonoma County Human Services, Adult & Aging Division – Petaluma Health Center Primary Care Clinic & Family Partnership Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) McClellan Outpatient Clinic Primary Care Clinic & Community Based Organization Partnership Involving Family University of Southern California – St.

Barnabas Senior Services Care Partners - Phase 2, Cohort 1 (2017 - 2020) Based on the improvement in clinical outcomes demonstrated in Phase 1, Archstone Foundation's Board of Directors approved continuation funding to expand to new clinic locations for the Phase 2, Cohort 1 in July 2017.

Care Partners Phase 2, Cohort 1 continuing project sites included: Primary Care Clinic & Community-Based Organization Partnership Family Health Centers of San Diego Sonoma County Human Services, Adult & Aging Division – Petaluma Health Center Primary Care Clinic Partnership El Sol Neighborhood Educational Center Care Partners - Phase 2, Cohort 2 (2018 - 2021) In 2018, following a Request for Proposals (RFP) process, the Board of Directors approved four additional sites as part of Phase 2, Cohort 2.

The second cohort developed partnership programs to improve depression care for older adults that expand on their previously established collaborative care programs. Care Partners Phase 2, Cohort 2 project sites included: Primary Care Clinic & Community-Based Organization Partnership Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance – Providence St.

Joseph Health & Services, Southern California Kaiser Permanente Southern California – Healthy African American Families Neighborhood Healthcare – Interfaith Community Services Primary Care Clinic & Family Partnership Archstone Foundation is also funding technical assistance and evaluation for the Care Partners projects.

In 2021, four sites were awarded funding to join a Learning Collaborative to replicate this partnered approach to depression care in their communities.

Support for the four Learning Collaborative sites included awards to: Community Health Centers of the Central Coast (CHCCC) and the Food Bank of Santa Barbara County (FBSBC); Eisner Health and Special Service for Groups’ (SSG) SILVER program; San Bernardino County Department of Aging and Adult Services’ Age Wise program and Lifestyle Medical; and Grove by Sutter Health and Council on Aging, Santa Rosa, California.

Results of the Care Partners program indicated that 780 total patients were enrolled in partnered depression care during Phase 2 (2018-2021). Enrolled patients had a mean of 11 contacts for depression care.

Clinical outcomes indicated that 70% of enrolled patients demonstrated a 50% improvement or last PHQ-9 < 10 after 10 weeks of treatment and 69% of patients had a greater than 5+ point improvement in PHQ-9 score, both considered clinically significant improvement in depression. This provides good evidence of the effectiveness for at least some versions of the Care Partner’s implementation of partnered collaborative care.

The Executive Summary completed by University of Washington and UC Davis Phase 2 Care Partners results is available here . Due to the cohort structure, the Foundation is not currently accepting proposals for the Depression in Late Life legacy priority area.

West Coast Geriatric Psychiatry Learning Collaborative From 2023-2024 Archstone Foundation partnered with the University of Washington to support the West Coast Geriatric Psychiatry Learning Collaborative for geriatric psychiatry fellows and fellowship directors from the University of Washington, Oregon Health Science University, Stanford University, University of California San Francisco, University of California Los Angeles, and University of California San Diego.

Together, the collaborative focused on identifying new pathways to strengthen the pipeline of clinicians prepared to care for older adults. Read an article about this work here .