Growing older with intellectual and developmental disabilities: Implementing and evaluating a project ECHO for dementia education

ABSTRACT

The needs of the rapidly expanding population of adults growing older with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and their families span both the IDD and the aging service systems. The use of Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) for professional education can bridge gaps and span boundaries between them at the macro, meso, and micro levels. A series of 10 ECHO sessions over 12 months was developed, incorporating key content on IDD and AD/ADRD for 145 providers in over 20 agencies. Impacts were assessed by a follow-up survey sent to participants after each program. The evaluation included quantitative assessment of ECHO features and a retrospective pre- and posttest of knowledge acquisition; a separate item assessed intention to apply information. Qualitative data were collected from open-ended items. The case presentation and discussion were the most effective ECHO components. Knowledge acquisition was significant for all sessions; most important uses included providing better care to clients/patients, training staff, and educating family and/or caregivers. Participants were aligned with two distinct groups, one with a predominant knowledge focus, the other with an emphasis on networking. Project ECHO can bridge gaps and span boundaries between the IDD and aging care systems at multiple levels, improving interprofessional collaboration and care by addressing both knowledge and networking needs of providers.

KEYWORDS:

• Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease Related Dementias (AD/ADRD)
• intellectual disability
• networking
• professional education
• program evaluation
• project ECHO

Acknowledgments

An earlier version of this paper was presented in a symposium, “Aging with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: When Dementia is Diagnosed or Suspected,” at the 74th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, Phoenix, Arizona, November 10-14.

The authors would like to thank the following members of our Project ECHO Hub team for their contributions to this project: Kathleen Bishop, Matt Janicki, Seth Keller, and Kathy Service (National Task Group on Intellectual Disabilities and Dementia Practices); Catherine Conway and Ashara Edwards (YAI); Jenni Matthews and Bert Waters (Virginia Geriatric Education Center); and Sam Cotton (University of Louisville).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02701960.2023.2168269.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by grant numbers U1QHP28737 and U1QHP28744 from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, HRSA, HHS, or the US Government.