Team Research

Statement of the Problem and Background Information: Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) are among the most expensive and debilitating diseases in the United States. In rural Georgia in particular, access to ADRD support resources is limited, yet risk factors for ADRD (older age, poor nutrition, poverty, co-morbidities, obesity, etc.) are prevalent. Everyone touched by ADRD is impacted: Georgia ranks second in the US for time spent caregiving, providing more than 750,000,000 hours of unpaid care annually, at a cost of more than $13 billion to the state economy. The majority (~65%) of Georgia’s caregivers (usually a family member, spouse or partner) live with a chronic disease, and nearly 35% experience depression. Research shows that care for dementias such as ADRD, should include multidisciplinary collaboration, supportive care networks, and community involvement. The University of Georgia has the expertise and existing infrastructure to develop multidisciplinary, innovative solutions to meet the growing needs of Georgians and beyond and address critical issues facing ADRD patients and their care partners. 

The Cognitive Aging Research and Education (CARE) Center in the Institute of Gerontology in the UGA College of Public Health is scaling up state-wide support for dementia diagnosis, support, education, and linkage to care and treatment. Infrastructure for ADRD support is established in several Archway Partnership (AP) communities across Georgia. AP, a unit of UGA’s Public Service and Outreach (PSO) has established strong stakeholder networks, academic research opportunities, and community supported initiatives across Georgia, especially in rural Georgia. 

Over the past four years, this research team has worked together to pilot a place-based therapeutic horticulture program for ADRD patients and their care partners. Through structured programs adapted from successful approaches for educating the public at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia (SBG), we have established preliminary evidence for the benefits of multisensory, garden-based programs to support quality-of-life interventions for this audience. The initial evidence has provided enough support for the research team to move on to the next stage of our collaborative endeavor to expand therapeutic horticulture efforts in partnership with the Department of Horticulture in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES). Recently, SBG and CAES hired a joint faculty position in horticultural therapy with the intent of contributing significantly to the innovative programing, and to scale up programs in support of ADRD patients and their care partners with CARE and AP. 

Pre-seed Project Goals: With pre-seed project funding, we will organize and host a first-of-its-kind bi-annual leadership summit for therapeutic horticulture in support of ADRD patients and their care partners to be held at SBG during March 2026. The first-round leadership summit will be small with participants identified by invitation only, particularly from AP communities, CARE partners, and Master Gardener stakeholders through CAES. This first summit will identify the participants, mission, vision and goals for a community advisory group who will help to set the focus for future programs and funding opportunities. To expand and grow the leadership summit in future years, we intend to secure additional funding and grow existing collaborations to additional academic colleges and PSO units. 

The second goal with pre-seed funding is to support a writing retreat to foster collaboration and grant writing among initial collaborators from CARE, AP, CAES, and SBG during May 2026. The writing retreat will incorporate lessons learned from the leadership summit and will bring in key stakeholders from collaborating colleges and units at UGA to provide significant feedback. It will also provide an opportunity to synthesize preliminary data that the team already has in order to seeking external funding for our collective effort. After combining and synthesizing the existing work, the team will be ready to prepare and submit a large-scale collaborative grant representing the first UGA interdisciplinary grant submission of this scope and scale on the topic of therapeutic horticulture. 

Pre-Seed Products: This pre-seed funded project includes the following products: 1) A leadership summit with key community members and stakeholders; 2) The creation of a Community Advisory Board to identify critical needs for dementia care in communities across Georgia and provide feedback in preparation of a full grant proposal; 3) A peer reviewed article with a statement of assessment and definition of critical needs; 4) A budget for scaling up a pre-existing local program designed to meet people where their needs are across Georgia; 5) A day long retreat for the core research group to work on developing the full grant proposal. 

Team Lead

Cruse-Sanders, Jennifer
crusesanders@uga.edu
College: Public Service and Outreach
Department: Botanical Garden

Team Members

Keber, Cora
ckeber@uga.edu
College: Public Service and Outreach
Department: Botanical Garden

Beer, Jenay
JENAY.BEER@uga.edu
College: College of Public Health
Department: Institute of Gerontology 

Renzi-Hammond, Lisa
lrenzi@uga.edu
College: College of Public Health
Department: Institute of Gerontology

Dorn, Sheri
sdorn@uga.edu
College: College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
Department: Department of Horticulture

Lombardini, Lee
Lombardini@uga.edu
College: College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
Department: Department of Horticulture

Elliott, Michelle
mwe@uga.edu
College: Public Service and Outreach
Department: Archway Partnership

Liggett, Sharon
sliggett@uga.edu
College: Public Service and Outreach
Department: Archway Partnership

Melcher, Katherine
kmelcher@uga.edu
College: College of Environment and Design
Department: Landscape Architect