Maryland has the highest dementia prevalence rate in the country. Maryland Project ECHO Dementia, which begins today, Sept. 8, builds professionals’ capacity to deliver person-centered dementia care.
As Maryland advances its commitment to becoming a more age-friendly state, preparing health care and community professionals to meet the needs of a growing older population is increasingly important. That preparation includes ensuring professionals across disciplines have the knowledge, skills, and resources to support people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) and their caregivers.
UMB’s Geriatrics & Gerontology Education and Research (GGEAR) Program is helping address this need through Maryland Project ECHO Dementia (MED), a statewide professional development initiative designed to strengthen the knowledge, confidence, and capacity of health care professionals and community-based providers to identify, assess, manage, and support individuals living with ADRD and their caregivers.
Following a successful spring pilot, the next six-session MED series begins Tuesday, Sept. 8. Registration is open to health care professionals and community-based providers interested in strengthening their capacity to provide person-centered dementia care. UMB health and social care students are also encouraged to attend. Participation in all sessions is encouraged but not required.
The state of Maryland continues to rank No. 1 in the country for dementia prevalence. An estimated 130,000 Marylanders age 65 and older are living with ADRD, while more than 260,000 family caregivers provide hundreds of millions of hours of unpaid care valued in the billions of dollars. As the state’s population continues to age, developing a dementia-capable workforce is an important component of Age-Friendly Maryland and the broader Longevity-Ready Maryland efforts to create communities, services, and systems that support Marylanders throughout the life course.
MED was developed with generous grant funding from the Alzheimer’s Association and informed by a statewide needs assessment examining educational priorities, preferred topics, delivery formats, and scheduling preferences, with particular attention to professionals serving rural and underserved communities.
Using the Project ECHO model, each virtual session combines evidence-based instruction with participant-led case consultation and interdisciplinary discussion. Topics include recognizing cognitive changes, differentiating types of dementia, distinguishing dementia from delirium and depression, pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic approaches, person-centered communication, caregiver support, and connecting families with community resources and long-term services and supports.
Attendees of the spring 2026 session represented medicine, nursing, pharmacy, social work, behavioral health, aging services, care coordination, and other health care and community-based professions.
Ninety-eight percent of respondents indicated they were likely to use what they learned in their work, and 78 percent reported learning something new through participant case discussions.
Participants particularly valued the program’s connection to real-world practice, highlighting “real clinical cases,” “interactive discussion,” and “expert Q&A,” as well as opportunities to learn from other professionals. Follow-up findings showed participants putting that learning into practice through improved communication, increased caregiver engagement, referrals to services, sharing educational resources, and new approaches to dementia care. Approximately half of follow-up respondents reported already applying something they learned through MED in their professional practice.
As Age-Friendly Maryland brings greater attention to how communities, institutions, and systems can support people as they age, initiatives such as MED demonstrate the important role of workforce development in achieving that vision. By connecting professionals across disciplines and geographic regions with expert guidance, practical resources, and one another, GGEAR is helping build a more dementia-capable and age-friendly Maryland.
For more information about the Maryland Project ECHO Dementia series, contact Diane Martin, PhD, at diane.martin@umaryland.edu.