A Mission to Enhance Dementia Awareness in Ghana Through Faith Leadership
June is globally recognized as Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month, a time dedicated to raising awareness about Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. The following story highlights the high-impact research of a UT scholar and her global efforts to educate communities and reduce stigma surrounding these devastating neurological conditions.
When Tiffany Washington, PhD, joined the University of Tennessee’s College of Social Work as an Associate Professor in August 2024, she brought with her more than twenty years of experience in healthcare social work and community-engaged scholarship. In less than nine months, she has secured a prestigious grant from the Engagement Scholarship Consortium (ESC) for her innovative project: Enhancing Dementia Awareness and Support through Faith Leadership in Ghana.
Dr. Washington’s journey into dementia research was shaped by personal experience. “As a healthcare social work practitioner, I encountered older adults experiencing Alzheimer’s and dementia, including my own grandfather,” Washington said. “These experiences encouraged me to create supportive environments for those affected by dementia, as well as their caregivers.”
Washington’s connection to Ghana began during her time at the University of Georgia, where she inherited a study abroad program focused on human trafficking and human rights. She was on a tenure track and a mentor reminded her to tie scholarship into everything. “He asked what kind of an impact I was planning to create and suggested that I incorporate my health and healthcare experience and passion into the program.”
She began visiting and exploring partnerships with healthcare organizations in Ghana. “Community-engaged research is about relationship building and after spending more than four years nurturing relationships there, I eventually connected with Alzheimer’s Ghana.”
Community-engaged research involves collaboration between groups of people connected by location, interest, or similar circumstances to address issues impacting their well-being. To be done correctly, scholars need to prioritize input from these partners—their learnings, experiences, concerns, priorities, and capacity. Washington’s initial proposal focused on caregivers supporting those with dementia, but she quickly learned that she needed to go back to the drawing board.
“The COVID-19 pandemic revealed critical gaps in public health education. It taught me that there were a lot of myths circulating around healthcare contributing to misinformation and vaccine hesitancy. These myths weren’t isolated to COVID, but also HIV/AIDS and even dementia.”
Washington and her partners at Alzheimer’s Ghana realized the need for basic, wide-spread dementia education was great. In Ghana, so many services are faith-based, so the team agreed it was critical to involve churches and faith communities to support this education effort from the start.
Drawing on her collaborative approach, Washington reached out to a colleague who had developed a successful dementia education model for Black churches in the United States called Alter. Fayron Epps, PhD, founded Alter in 2019 to address the lack of resources and awareness around dementia in African American and faith communities in the state of Georgia. Washington demonstrated to Epps how implementing her program internationally could create meaningful impact. After accompanying Washington on a trip to Ghana, Epps was on board.
Working closely with Alzheimer’s Ghana and other partners, the team spent a full year adapting the Alter model to fit Ghana’s unique context, history, and culture. The result was Alter Ghana, a culturally-responsive dementia education program specifically designed for faith communities in Ghana.
In 2023, Washington led a team that traveled throughout various regions of Ghana to pilot the adapted program. The impact was immediate and profound. “When I tell you it was the most beautiful experience for all involved,” she recalls with emotion, “we had one man say that he owed his mother an apology—he didn’t realize what Alzheimer’s disease was and that confusion and forgetfulness were symptoms.”
The team collected data from approximately 700 surveys during their two-week visit, demonstrating the program’s reach and effectiveness. With the ESC grant funding, Washington plans to expand Alter Ghana’s reach by hosting a one-day dementia education workshop in Accra, Ghana in September 2025, coinciding with World Alzheimer’s Day on September 21.
“We’re going to invite ten faith leaders to the main city of Accra and hold a pastors’ conference. We’ll train them on how to create dementia-friendly spaces, whether a church or synagogue, and educate leadership on the disease and its symptoms.”
For Washington, the Alter Ghana project exemplifies the principles of effective community-engaged scholarship and the importance of humility and identifying blind spots. “It never occurred to me to pivot from what I originally proposed—which was focused on caregiver interviews. Yet, it doesn’t make sense to interview a group about their experiences if they are not fully educated in the first place.
“You cannot rush community-engaged scholarship—it takes time to build trust with your partners. You cannot usurp their expertise but follow their lead; you must be flexible and not hold rigid expectations. We are a small family and that doesn’t happen overnight. We needed to build a certain rapport with the right people to pull off this project, and we did.”
Washington also emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration. “If I or Dr. Epps didn’t value interdisciplinary collaboration, we wouldn’t be here. We are not going to solve world problems in silos.”
In alignment with the Engaged Scholarship Consortium’s mission, this project has built strong university-community partnerships and will help Alzheimer’s Ghana build capacity by establishing relationships with faith leaders outside of Greater Accra.
Less than a year into her career at UT, Dr. Washington is already making her mark on campus and in the community. She is presenting another project, Exploring the Feasibility and Acceptability of a Virtual Respite Program for Caregivers, and has several other research projects in the works.
“This transition to UT has been fantastic. It has breathed new energy into my work, how I think about work, and where I can go next. It’s proven to be so wonderful.”
Through Dr. Washington’s leadership, the University of Tennessee continues to demonstrate its commitment to addressing global health disparities and promoting community-engaged scholarship that makes a real difference in people’s lives. We look forward to hearing about her experience after the September workshop.
Alter Ghana is a collaboration between Alzheimer’s Ghana, Emory University Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, University of Georgia School of Social Work, and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science Technology Department of Medicine.
–Sarah Wilkins, Communications Coordinator, Division of Access and Engagement