Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease: Building a Health Care System for All of Us

Dementia impacts people and families across our State. Symptoms including issues with memory, cognition, and social functioning are difficult for patients as well as their family members, friends, caregivers, and also for providers. Patients may not feel supported and heard, caregivers may be overwhelmed, and providers may be unsure as to what the best next steps. Many Providers not feel comfortable talking about cognitive issues. In many cases no clear guidelines exist to support the patient through diagnosis and increase in symptoms. In 2017 we convened a workgroup and developed recommendations that were finalized and approved this last November.

Read our summary

Read our longer Report

Take our implementation survey for medical groups and providers

Our Report and Recommendations has six focus areas developed in partnership with the Dementia Action Collaborative:

1. 1. Diagnosis,
2. 2. Ongoing care and support,
3. 3. Advance care planning and palliative care,
4. 4. Need for increased support and/or higher levels of care,
5. 5. Preparing for potential hospitalization, and
6. 6. Screening for delirium risk.

Our goal with these recommendations are to support patients, their family members, and other caregivers across the disease process. We developed a roadmap for implementation that outlines the patient perspective for optimal care alongside operational details for each of the six areas. We walk through how our health care system is currently set-up, intermediate steps for, and a description of optimal care. We also have specific steps for different groups such as patients and family members, primary care practices and systems (including primary care providers), health plans, hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and Washington State agencies to improve quality of dementia care, health outcomes of people with dementia and their caregivers, and affordability.

Questions or comments about this work? We would love to hear from you!

Ginny Weir, MPH
Program Director, Bree Collaborative