This unique program is helping people who care for their loved ones with dementia and more

In 2010, 5.9 million children were reported as abused or neglected in the United States. The Nurse-Family Partnership, or NFP, arranges for registered nurses to make regular home visits to first-time low-income or vulnerable mothers, starting early in their pregnancies and continuing until their child is 2.

More than five million Americans have Alzheimer’s or similar illnesses, and that number is growing as the population ages - without any immediate prospect of a cure, advocacy groups have begun promoting ways to offer people with dementia a comfortable decline instead of imposing on them a medical model of care, which seeks to defer death through escalating interventions. An Arizona nursing home offers new ways to care for people with dementia.

For individuals with developmental disabilities in Washington, D.C., inclusion’s uphill battle, while still happening, has shown results. After the practice of institutionalization ended decades ago, there was a shift to group home living, nonprofit advocacy groups, and job placements. Challenges remain though, like slow-moving bureaucracy, funding, and those still fighting inclusion, but moves toward inclusive jobs and living continue.

*Medical research has done wonders to rid populations of diseases; however, the U.S. health care system has failed to appropriate the right resources to Medicare patients with one or more chronic conditions. Health Quality Partners in Doylstown, PA enrolls Medicare patients with at least one chronic illness and hospitalization and sends a trained nurse to see them on a routine basis, whether they are healthy or sick. As a result, the HQP program has reduced hospitalizations and cut Medicare costs.

New mothers who live in poverty are faced with fewer resources to help them with their physical and mental health as well as the health of their babies. In New York City, the Nurse-Family partnership matches nurses with economically poor first-time mothers. Different studies have shown that women in the program have healthier pregnancies and children.

Emergency room visits cost money and are not the most comfortable places to be. The Massachusetts-based Medicare program called Independence at Home gives doctors incentives to visit frail patients at home and received a cut of the cost. The program also pairs patients with social workers and continues to save Medicare millions of dollars.

Many medical students are intimidated by the challenge of having to gather accurate histories and establish connections with patients with dementia. A non-profit, Arts and Minds, is helping students get more comfortable by connecting them with patients outside of the clinic through museum visits.

What can you do to enjoy time with Alzheimer’s patients? A suburb near San Diego has recently opened a new town square with architecture designed to look like it is from the 1950s. The space offers aging baby boomers with dementia or Alzheimer’s a place to enjoy and interact with nostalgia.

Congressional Republicans' push to reduce Medicaid funds is a threatening proposition to the people who use its services. Medicaid funds services at home which allows people to live at home instead of in a nursing home by providing minor house renovations, a visiting nurse or other worker, or other home products.

There is a racial disparity in science, the black population is extremely underrepresented and due to historically terrible treatment of black individuals by science they are very reluctant to engage in research. Therefore, researchers are now starting to directly target black and other underrepresented groups to try to spur involvement.