Learning is accelerated by connecting with the best and the brightest

As a New Realities Foundation, The Patterson Foundation seeks to leverage resources, intellect and ideas to create a “whole which is greater than the sum of the parts”.

To accomplish this, TPF is committed to creating connective tissue with foundations, experts, thought leaders, organizations and any entity or individual with a willingness to share.  My experiences last week at the Grantmakers in Aging annual conference in Chicago lead me to believe that interest in collaboration is strong across the spectrum…and this is a good thing.

At the the conference, Debra Jacobs and I were able to meet with several individuals representing both themselves and their organizations.  These individuals took the time to respond to our questions and provide us with their insight and guidance.

A special thanks to:

Irene Frye and Nancy Zweibel - Retirement Research Foundation (Chicago, Ill.)

Brian Hofland - AARP Foundation (Washington D.C.)

Michael Marcus - The Harry and Jeannette Weinberg Foundation (Baltimore, MD)

Peter Wood - Health Foundation of South Florida (Miami, Fla.)

Cory Reider and Chris Langston -  John A. Hartford Foundation (New York, New York)

Rene Seidel - SCAN Foundation (Long Beach, Calif.)

David Lindeman -  Center for Technology and Aging (Oakland, Calif.)

By connecting with these individuals and learning from them, we are better prepared to turn opportunities into reality.

TPF also had an opportunity to meet with the clinic coordinators from the 15 Memory Disorder Clinics in the State of Florida who were attending their quarterly meeting in Orlando.  These individuals work in the “dementia space” every day, and they have the real-world experience to guide us as we are evaluating how to approach this initiative.

Although they work at 15 different institutions, these coordinators see the value in collaborating, and they have done so on continual basis for many years.  We used the opportunity of this gathering to ask the question, “What are the biggest gaps or barriers to putting patients and caregivers in control of dementia versus dementia being in control of them?” We got some very good answers from the group.

We would like to expand our collaboration and continue the discussion with all of you.

How would you answer: "What are the biggest gaps or barriers to putting patients and caregivers in control of dementia versus dementia being in control of them?”

We look forward to your responses.