Home » Pat Summitt Foundation awards grant to University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging

Pat Summitt Foundation awards grant to University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging

LEXINGTON, Ky.  The Pat Summitt Foundation presented a $25,000 grant to the University of Kentucky’s Sanders-Brown Center on Aging (SBCoA) during the UK women’s basketball game against Auburn University on Thursday evening. The center is one of the nation’s top centers on aging, to preserve brain health and slow the progression of dementia. It focuses on research, education, outreach and clinical programs to promote healthy brain aging for adults.

The Wildcat’s head coach, Kyra Elzy, is passionate about Alzheimer’s disease research because of her close relationships with her grandmother, Mary Elzy, and her college basketball coach, Pat Summitt.

As a four-year letter winner at Tennessee, Elzy was a member of two national championship teams in 1997 and 1998 and a national runner-up squad in 2000, all under the legendary Pat Summitt. Her beloved coach died in 2016 at the age of 64 following a battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

The Pat Summitt Foundation’s grant will assist in developing a community-based health program to support the SBCoA’s healthy brain aging and dementia care initiative. This includes health screenings, telehealth kiosk equipment costs and health education.

Funds will also assist in refining the Harmony intervention, developed by Elizabeth Rhodus, Ph.D., an assistant professor at SBCoA and UK College of Medicine’s Department of Behavioral Science. Rhodus is also a primary faculty member of the Center for Health Equity Transformation. The Harmony intervention is a sensory-based dementia care program that caregivers can use to stimulate patients’ senses to increase alertness, reduce anxiety and calm the nervous system.

“We are proud to support the great work Dr. Rhodus and the Sanders-Brown team do to help those aging in place in rural Kentucky communities. We believe their work is vitally important for all caregivers to know and are happy to help the program expand to reach even more,” said Morgan Vance, director of the advancement for the Pat Summitt Foundation.

Learn more information on grants made by the Pat Summitt Foundation here.

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