The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced 43 award recipients for the BOLD Public Health Programs to Address Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias. These award recipients will work to implement public health strategies that promote brain health, address dementia, and support individuals living with dementia and their caregivers in communities across the nation. This critical work would not have been possible without the hard work of AIM advocates and bipartisan congressional champions. 

Thanks to our dedicated advocates, AIM worked to develop, introduce and grow support for the bipartisan Building Our Largest Dementia (BOLD) Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act (P.L.115-406). This bill, which was signed into law in 2018, was introduced by Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) in the Senate, and Reps. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) in the House. This law has been essential to creating and growing a public health infrastructure for dementia across the country. 

Through the law, the CDC provides funding to state, local and tribal public health departments to help them implement effective dementia interventions such as reducing risk, increasing early detection and diagnosis, preventing avoidable hospitalizations and advancing health equity. 

During the congressional appropriations process each year, AIM advocates and bipartisan congressional champions grow support for the critical funding needed to advance these public health efforts. Thanks to their efforts, the BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act is working to strengthen the dementia public health infrastructure across the country. The CDC was able to fund 43 awards in this cycle, which was above the forecasted 35 and the previously funded 23 awards.

These appropriations not only fund the BOLD program awards, but also the BOLD Public Health Centers of Excellence and the Healthy Brain Initiative (HBI). The HBI is a longstanding collaboration between the Alzheimer’s Association and CDC to advance understanding of and support for cognitive decline as a central part of public health practice. Since Congress first appropriated funds for the CDC to focus on brain health and dementia in 2005, HBI partners have worked together to implement public health strategies that promote brain health, address dementia and help better support caregivers.

The Healthy Brain Initiative (HBI) Road Map, recently updated for 2023-2027, provides a  framework for the BOLD award recipients to lead with urgency and act for impact in their communities to improve brain health across the life course and support caregivers.

Learn more about how the Alzheimer’s Association is leading the way to address dementia from a public health perspective.