Advocating for Dementia impacted Kentuckians; Bill Seeks to Train PCP’s to Screen for Disease
Four in 10 people who experience signs of memory loss visit their doctor after the onset of symptoms. This means a majority of people carry on without proper screening. Conversely, 70% of Americans say they would want to know if they have Alzheimer’s or other dementia.
At the Alzheimer’s Association, our vision is a world without Alzheimer’s and all types of dementia. However, until we educate, bring awareness to early detection and benefits of an early diagnosis; address the issue of the need for Geriatricians and Neurologists to help the aging population, it hampers the mission of curing this disease.
Locally, at the Alzheimer’s Association of Greater Kentucky and Southern Indiana, our Director of Public Policy, Mackenzie Lee Wallace, J.D., is seeking to get a bill passed in the 2024 Kentucky legislative session. The focus of the bill is to provide additional dementia-related training opportunities for providers. Currently, there are only 34 registered geriatricians in Kentucky, in addition to the state being one of 20 “Neurology Deserts”.
Without an adequate supply of specialists, the demand for early detection and diagnosis falls on the shoulders of primary care providers, especially nurses and physicians assistants.
The bill is no silver bullet; but if passed, it would provide nurses with two hours of dementia-specific education focused on: early detection and diagnosis, communication techniques for addressing memory concerns with patients and their family, the variety of different cognitive assessments available as well as billing codes for reimbursement and updates on the newest Alzheimer’s treatments. Nurses would be required to fulfill these requirements every two years and it would count towards their required annual continuing education hours. The bill would provide the same for physician assistants, but requiring only one-hour every two years, and would also be counted towards their biannual continuing education requirements.
According to researchers, Jodi L. Liu, Lawrence Baker, Annie Chen, Jessie Wang, Federico Girosi, their study published in RAND (a non-profit, nonpartisan research organization); simulates patients in Kentucky may on average wait 46-months, and Primary Care Physicians (PCP) may only be able to treat an estimated 28,400 people. In rural communities, the wait time may be three times longer.
Nurses and physician assistants play a critical role in patient care and often have much more time to allocate to patients than doctors. The frequent interaction helps patients and their families build trust with the health care provider, in turn being able to approach conversations about memory loss and the disease. The primary care role helps alleviate the bottlenecking of patients getting into a specialist, because patients can leave with an understanding of their cognitive baseline.
The Alzheimer’s Association released data from the 2023 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures Special Report, citing one in three seniors with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia dies from the disease.
Key Findings in the study titled; “Modeling Early Detection and Geographic Variation in Health System Capacity for Alzheimer’s Disease–Modifying Therapies” include putting the value in early detection and treatment to patients. For more, click here.
Please contact, Director of Public Policy, Mackenzie Wallace at mlwallace@alz.org to get involved in the fight to #EndALZ on the legislative stage.
OP-ED: Congress Needs to Fund Alzheimer’s and dementia research
Heather Richey, Public Policy Advocate penned a note in the Courier Journal sharing her opinion, based on a first-hand account, the detriment of the disease and how a commitment to research and policies helps give families hope.
Click here to visit the opinion piece in the Courier Journal.
To get involved with the local public policy efforts, please email mlwallace@alz.org or call at 502.451.4266.
Call our confidential, 24/7 help line at 800.272.3900 for assistance, counseling and support for patients and caregivers with Alzheimer’s or other types of dementia. Visit local caregiver support and resources at alz.org/kyin.
