Researcher's Team Awarded Prestigious Innovation Grant

UW School of Nursing Dr. Oleg Zaslavsky’s dementia research project was awarded an Innovation Grant by the UW Medicine Garvey Institute for Brain Health Solutions. Zaslavsky, PhD, RN, along with Dr. Annie Chen and Dr. Kimiko Domoto-Reilly from the UW School of Medicine, will receive a $1 million award for their work which seeks to improve the health and effectiveness of caregivers of people with Lewy body dementias. Lewy body dementias (LBD) are named after Dr. Frederich Lewy, the neurologist who discovered them, and are the second most common type of degenerative dementia in older adults. They are complex disorders and patients may exhibit disruptive behaviors that make caregiving challenging. Compared to other types of dementias, caregivers of people with LBD report higher stress and more severe depressive symptoms. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has multiplied the challenges that caregivers of persons with dementia face in providing care for their loved ones.

The Garvey Institute for Brain Health Solutions Innovation Grants aim to provide funding for new ideas that have the potential to make a substantial impact on brain health through research, education, patient care and/or advocacy. The inaugural round of funding touches on all three of the Institute’s initial areas of focus: cognitive aging, trauma and addictions.