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Innov Aging
Innov Aging
innovateage
Innovation in Aging
2399-5300 Oxford University Press US 

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.2525
igaa057.2525
Abstracts
Session 6240 (Symposium)
AcademicSubjects/SOC02600
Geographic Disparities in Access to Specialized Dementia Care
Cornell Portia 1 Zhang Wenhan 2 Smith Lindsey 3 Fashaw Shekinah 2 Thomas Kali 2 1 
Providence VA Medical Center, Providence, Rhode Island, United States
2 
Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States
3 
PSU School of Public Health, Portland, Oregon, United States
2020 
16 12 2020 
16 12 2020 
4 Suppl 1 Program Abstracts from The GSA 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting “Turning 75: Why Age Matters”716 716
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.2020This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Abstract
With novel, previously undescribed data on the availability of dementia-specific assisted living communities (ALs), we analyzed variation among counties in the availability of this important service for persons with dementia. In twenty-one states, we identified 6,961 ALs (16%) with a dementia-specific license/certification. Counties with at least one AL providing dementia-specific care had substantially higher college attainment versus counties that had at least one AL, but no dementia-specific beds: 25% versus 18% (p<0.01). Counties with dementia care also had significantly greater median incomes ($54,000 vs. $46,400), and home values ($159,000 vs. $113,000), lower poverty rates (13.7 percent vs. 16.3 percent), and lower proportions of Black residents (7.8 percent vs. 8.7 percent). Our findings are suggestive of a mismatch in need and availability of residential care options for older adults with ADRD that are also low-income or racial/ethnic minorities. Part of a symposium sponsored by Assisted Living Interest Group.