Strengthening Public Understanding of Brain Science Through Health Practitioners

When I first joined the Dana Foundation three years ago, my top priority was to build relationships with our staff, with our partners, and with our peers. To get there, I made a sustained effort to connect with people individually and to really listen to them. I believed then—and still do today—that to shape the future of neuroscience, relationships based in active listening and humility are what matter most.

In line with this principle and our vision for a future in which brain science both informs and reflects society, the Dana Foundation partnered with Research!America in 2022 to listen to Americans about their views on brain health research, and about brain health and how it affects our lives.

Through this survey, we found that more than eight in ten people in the US are affected by brain health challenges (e.g., mental illness, dementia, addiction) and most consider brain health to be among the most important health issues facing the country. Despite this, the vast majority do not feel knowledgeable about brain health research. We also learned that when it comes to science and health, Americans most trust the individuals they turn to for health guidance—doctors, nurses, and other frontline professionals.

These findings highlighted that healthcare professionals are an important gateway for public engagement on neuroscience. The more clinicians and mental health providers know about neuroscience, the more they can share with their patients. So, we started exploring opportunities to equip healthcare professionals with the latest neuroscience insights and train them to communicate those more effectively to the people they serve.

Over the past few months, we invested in several programs under Dana Education that aim to improve patient care, inform public discourse, and advance brain health for all:

UsAgainstAlzheimer’s Brain Health Academy offers free, evidence-based education to healthcare professionals, including practical strategies for reducing dementia risk and promoting lifelong brain health. Each year, the program provides thousands of providers, including physicians, nurses, and social workers with the actionable insights and knowledge they need to help educate patients about the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Delivered virtually, Brain Health Academy offers six courses each year to health professionals, free of charge, with the opportunity for free continuing education credits. Each one-hour course—offered live and on-demand—focuses on a modifiable risk factor for dementia and provides science-backed recommendations, resources, and guidance for practical application in a clinical setting.

With support from the Dana Foundation, the program is working to secure new partnerships and funding to ensure its long-term sustainability. It is establishing a Curriculum Advisory Committee to co-create and review the course materials. The Brain Health Academy also plans to expand to include continuing medical education (CME) for physicians, optimize their communication efforts to recruit providers serving high-risk and/or predominantly Black and Latino populations, and enhance their evaluation process to include a pre-course survey to assess learning needs and knowledge gains.

Marshall University’s Neuroscience Literacy in Mental Health Project is a professional development series that will provide more than 500 mental health professionals in West Virginia with specialized neuroscience training. The program will help clinicians apply neuroscience principles to mental health care, ensuring that emerging research reaches those who need it most. Providers will engage in a comprehensive 12-month, interactive workshop; an online community of practice; and a microcredential that helps to translate neuroscience research about mental health into a large, knowledge-building effort that goes beyond the traditional continuing education requirements of mental health professionals.

Our goal through this program is to promote knowledge transfer from basic and applied neuroscientists to professionals and then to the public. We do this by addressing the shortage of available resources, which restricts mental health workers from capitalizing on the benefits of neuroscience research when promoting mental health education to their communities. Together with Marshall University, we hope to increase the ability of mental health workers to make informed decisions about how neuroscience will influence their work, as well as have a direct impact on the mental health and wellbeing of society.

In addition to these neuroscience education-focused projects, we’re delving deeper into forming meaningful bidirectional relationships between science and society through our NextGen and Frontiers programs and grantees. These programs aim to redefine, with a long-term view, how neuroscience engages with the broader public. By training scientists to incorporate diverse viewpoints into research priority-setting and foster public conversations about the future of science, scientific advancements can better align with societal needs and values.

We look forward to sharing more updates on these efforts and working alongside our partners to strengthen the critical bridge between neuroscience and the public. And as we continue this work, we invite others to join us in expanding access to neuroscience education and frontline public interaction. Whether through investing in training programs, fostering interdisciplinary collaborations, or ensuring that the latest research reaches providers, we can collectively build a future where brain health knowledge is accessible, actionable, and transformative.