Long-term care facilities across the country are trying outside-the-box methods to better address dementia and eradicate the fragmentation that patients and their families experience.
One such pioneer is the Boston-based Hebrew SeniorLife, which last week launched the new multipronged effort. It’s one of eight other long-term care institutions across the country working to adopt an outpatient dementia care model that was first created by the University of California at Los Angeles, the Boston Globe reported Monday.
The model includes early screening and consultation with patients, care coordination and management that’s lead by a nurse, and family support that works closely with patients’ families and other caregivers. One of its primary goals is to reduce both costly trips to the emergency department, and extended stays in the hospital.
As McKnight’s noted last year, UCLA researchers found that the model reduced the risk of entering a nursing home by 40%, and saves Medicare about $2,400 per patient annually.
“So many people don’t want to talk about dementia, but after I got through my denial, I felt like this is something I need to be honest about,” Helene Oppenheimer, whose husband Martin has dementia and is taking part in the program, told the Globe.
The program is part of the Harvard-affiliated provider’s new Center for Memory Health, which it says is the first and only evidence-based, nurse-led comprehensive care management program for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia in New England. They noted the need to try something different in the fight against such disease, as Alzheimer’s is projected to more than double by 2050, rising to 13.8 million cases.
The Globe notes that numerous providers are also trying such multipronged programs to address dementia, responding to patients’ frustrations with a fragmented care process.
