Community Health Outreach: Improving Diagnosis and Treatment of Dementia in Primary Care

Washington State has the third highest rate of death from Alzheimer's disease of any state in the nation. This is expected to increase 40% in next 10 years and 181% over the next 30 years. In many practices in Washington State, there are no guidelines to increase quality of care for screening, diagnosis, or treatment of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. This is costly to the health care system and highly burdensome to patients, caregivers, and the community. The current project seeks to develop a curriculum of evidence-based approaches which are aligned with Bree Collaborative, Alzheimer's Disease Working Group and Alzheimer's State Plan for appropriate screening and diagnosis for Alzheimer's disease and other dementias and use it to train 95 and community health providers. This will help these providers better support family and other caregivers of those with dementia, manage patients' medications and co-morbid conditions, offer supportive care, assist with advance care planning, and refer patients to other resources such as consumer health information sites, counseling, senior day programs or palliative care of those with dementia.