Alzheimer’s Alliance Texarkana Grant Respite Care

Alzheimer’s Alliance Texarkana Area, Inc. has been awarded $63,935 from the Alzheimer’s Association Center for Dementia Respite Innovation (CDRI) to enhance the quality and availability of dementia-specific respite care for people living with dementia and their caregivers in Texarkana, Texas.

Alzheimer’s Alliance Texarkana Area, Inc. is among 34 recipients selected to receive grant funding. Funds will be used to enhance dementia-specific respite care for our friends by expanding the therapeutic programming offered through the Our Place Day Respite Center. The grant will support the introduction of evidence-based cognitive stimulation activities, including animatronic companion animals, therapeutic baby dolls, structured gardening experiences, and bird-watching stations. These innovative additions are designed to reduce anxiety, encourage social interaction, stimulate memories, and provide meaningful engagement tailored to each participant’s cognitive, emotional, and physical abilities. By enhancing our purposeful, person-centered activities, the Alzheimer’s Alliance will continue to enrich the lives of individuals living with dementia while providing caregivers with the confidence that their loved ones are receiving compassionate, high-quality care.

The Alzheimer’s Alliance Texarkana Area, Inc, is excited to be included in this elite group of community-based service providers,” said Terrie Arnold, Executive Director. “Caring for someone living with dementia can be challenging. This grant will help us provide much needed dementia-specific respite care and services for people living with dementia and their caregivers living in Texarkana.”

The Alzheimer’s Alliance Texarkana Area has been providing compassionate, dementia-specific respite care through its Our Place Day Respite Center since 2013. Serving families across a 22-county region in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, the program offers a safe, engaging environment where individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia can participate in meaningful activities while caregivers receive much-needed time to rest, work, or attend to personal responsibilities. Each week, approximately 25 families benefit from the program, which has provided more than 10,000 hours of respite care since its inception.

An estimated 17,000 families in the Alliance’s service area are affected by Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia. As the number of individuals living with dementia continues to grow, so does the need for specialized respite services that support both the person living with the disease and their caregiver. By expanding evidence-based therapeutic programming through this grant, the Alzheimer’s Alliance will further enhance the quality of care provided, creating more opportunities for meaningful engagement, reducing anxiety and isolation, and helping caregivers keep their loved ones safely at home for as long as possible.

In conjunction with the grant, Alzheimer’s Alliance Texarkana Area, Inc. will also receive online training and ongoing technical assistance from the CDRI to ensure respite services are dementia-capable and to support sustainability. The CDRI will also collect data and evaluate the impact of these innovative projects from all grant recipients to inform public policy.

“We congratulate the Alzheimer’s Alliance Texarkana Area, Inc. on this award and look forward to partnering with their team to expand access to dementia-specific respite care,” said Lauren Stratton, director, psychosocial research and program evaluation at the Alzheimer’s Association. “Each funded program contributes to a growing national network of innovative respite models, helping advance sustainable solutions that better support caregivers and people living with dementia in communities across the country.”

The Alzheimer’s Association created the CDRI in 2024 after receiving a $25 million grant from the Administration for Community Living (ACL), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Through this initiative, the CDRI is distributing $25 million over five years to local respite providers and organizations to enhance the quality and availability of respite care nationwide. Visit alz.org/cdri to see the full list of this year’s grant recipients.

Funding disclosure

This project is supported by the Administration for Community Living (ACL), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $18,228,216 with 75 percent funded by ACL/HHS and $4,941,389 amount with 25 percent funded by non-government source(s). The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by ACL/HHS, or the U.S. Government.