Critical Workforce Gaps in Dementia Education and Training

The US Department of Health and Human Services and the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, through private sector support, sponsored the National Research Summit on Dementia Care: Building Evidence for Services and Supports (Summit) in 2017. Various workgroups were asked to address topics of interest in dementia care and develop recommendations addressing the goals of the Summit. Workforce education and training was identified to be a key issue. As a result, a Workforce Development Workgroup (the Workgroup) was created and addressed two of the Summitʼs goals. The first goal is to improve the quality of care and support provided to persons living with dementia and those who care for them. The second goal is to accelerate the development, evaluation, translation, implementation, and scaling‐up of evidence‐based and evidence‐informed services for persons living with dementia, their families, and caregivers. In this article, the Workgroup identified gaps in educating and training a dementia‐capable workforce. The Workgroup consisted of an interprofessional team with expertise in dementia workforce development from academia, professional organizations, and the federal government. Four recommendations are presented concerning research topics that will advance the education and training of a dementia‐capable workforce, which includes health professions students, faculty, practitioners, direct care workers, persons living with dementia, and those who care for them. J Am Geriatr Soc 68:625–629, 2020