CAPABLE Transplant: Optimizing Transplant Outcomes Through Holistic Prehabilitation for Older Adults with End-Stage Renal Disease

We are studying how a program, ‘CAPABLE Transplant’, could help older adults with lower incomes and advanced kidney disease feel better and have more energy.  We also want to know how best to connect this group to the CAPABLE Transplant program. CAPABLE Transplant aims to help a person achieve goals they set for themselves (like going to study group every week) and make their homes work better (like by installing handrails on stairs) using the services of a nurse, occupational therapist and a handy worker over a 4-month time period.  We will test this program on 10 people with lower incomes aged 50 and older in the Baltimore area that are on the kidney transplant waitlist at Johns Hopkins. This group faces growing stressors that make staying on the kidney transplant waitlist more difficult and accessing healthcare and support services harder too.  CAPABLE Transplant is about fairness in healthcare, making sure everyone gets the help they need and has more fairness in who is given the chance for a kidney transplant. This project would run at the same time as another grant, allowing me another group to test CAPABLE Transplant. Having this second group will improve my chances of getting funding to test this program on a bigger and more diverse group of people with the goal of getting Medicare to pay for CAPABLE Transplant to help those older adults with lower incomes receive a fair chance at kidney transplant and the care that they need most to thrive.