{"doi":"10.1002/nur.22309","title":"Faith‐based organizations can support dementia caregivers in a post‐pandemic world","abstract":"The aging of America is contributing to rapid and substantial growth in the number of older adults living with Alzheimer's Disease and other forms of dementia (U.S. Census Bureau, 2018). In addition, historically underrepresented populations are at greater risk of developing dementia, which is a terminal illness: African Americans are twice as likely, and Hispanic/Latinos are 1.5 times as likely to develop dementia compared to their White counterparts (Alzheimer's Association, 2021). The human and economic consequences of this phenomenon are well understood. For example, dementia cost the nation over $320 billion in 2022. That cost is expected to rise to $1 trillion dollars by 2050, placing a heavy burden on our already struggling healthcare system (Alzheimer's Association, 2021). How can we, as a society, address the needs of aging adults? As older adults with dementia age and progress through a condition that affects thinking, judgment, decision-making, memory, and mood, they increasingly rely on other people for care and support. This support is usually provided by family members or friends, hereafter referred to as caregivers. The burden of dementia is compounded by the challenges it places on informal caregivers of people with dementia. According to the Alzheimer's Association, caregivers of older adults living with dementia report twice as many financial, emotional, and physical problems compared to caregivers of older adults without dementia (2021). Over 11 million Americans provide unpaid care for older adults living with dementia which is estimated at 16 billion hours and valued at nearly $272 billion (Alzheimer's Association, 2021). Considering the amount of emotional stress, financial burden, and physical exertion required to care for an aging loved one with a terminal illness, the task is not an easy one, nor should it be done in isolation. As we saw from social distancing requirements imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, social isolation resulted in greater reports of poor mental health and loneliness, leading to worse health outcomes among caregivers of older adults, especially those living with dementia (Britt et al., 2022; Fingerman et al. 2012; Manca et al., 2020; Richards et al., 2022; Wang et al., 2021). In a recent study, we found that dementia caregivers and their loved ones, though isolated, still attempted to engage in their religious and spiritual practices (Britt et al., 2022). Though caregivers were more successful in connecting through new virtual platforms offered for religious and spiritual practices and support groups through technology, older adults living with dementia were not able to connect to their usual religious and spiritual practice resources due to limited technology literacy and physical disabilities such as hearing and vision impairment. Only one dementia caregiver in the study reported receiving spiritual support at their residence through a chaplain saying prayers and a priest offering Holy Communion. Indeed, the pandemic shed light on many systems that lack the structure to support those living with dementia and their caregivers. So, what is to be done with an aging society with substantial care and support needs? A recently released report, 2022 National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers, developed by the Advisory Councils from RAISE Family Caregiving Act and the Supporting Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Act, calls for 500 actions that both public and private entities can implement to better support caregivers. A multistakeholder group, including caregivers, contributed to a comprehensive strategy calling on the federal government, states, payors, healthcare companies, community organizations and leaders, advocacy groups, educators, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and academia to increase awareness, inclusion, and resources for family caregivers facing many challenges in providing care for a loved one. One nonprofit sector mentioned throughout the strategy is faith-based org","journal":"Research in Nursing & Health","year":2023,"id":381765,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":3,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9551,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":700499,"name":"Pamela Z. Cacchione","orcid":"0000-0003-1805-7091","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":268835,"name":"Mary D. Naylor","orcid":"0000-0001-9287-153X","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":797017,"name":"Katherine Britt","orcid":"0000-0002-5119-1260","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":10,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:17:12.933204Z","pmid":"37042730","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}