Tlingit & Haida gets $300,000 to build dementia services for Southeast elders

Tlingit & Haida says its elders who show signs of dementia have no one at the tribe assigned to help them. A new federal cooperative agreement, a form of grant, puts $300,000 toward changing that in its first year.

The Administration for Community Living, part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, awarded the money to the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska in Juneau, according to the federal award record. The tribe's project description says it has no designated staff, no standardized screening process and no formal referral pathway connecting elders with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias to regional services.

The plan builds that pathway inside the tribe's Family Services Department. The tribe will hire a new elder liaison and train staff in the REACH community caregiver-support model. Services follow three steps the tribe calls screen, inform, connect. Every elder and family gets dementia awareness education. Standardized screening identifies possible dementia. Elders and caregivers who need more get individualized options counseling, help weighing long-term care choices, and caregiver coaching.

The tribe plans to formalize partnerships with the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) and the Alaska Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association to keep referrals going after federal money ends.

Federal records list the award period as Sept. 30, 2026, through Sept. 30, 2029. The tribe's own description says the project runs through August 2029. The agency's funding notice offered $250,000 to $300,000 per year for a three-year project, with funding after the first year depending on appropriations and progress. Grantees must cover at least 10% of the cost. The award record shows only the first $300,000.

"While reliable prevalence or incidence data on Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia in the American Indian and Alaska Native population are not currently available, we do know that in every Tribal community there are individuals with dementia and caregivers struggling to support them," an Indian Health Service consultation document said in 2021.