What Latina Women Need to Know About Dementia Carly Stern - The Washington Post | |
go to original December 11, 2021 |
“People of color, but particularly women of color, are in the crosshairs of our nation’s dementia crisis in so many ways — from being at greater risk of dementia, to being more likely to serve as a caregiver for someone living with dementia, to having their economic security threatened by caregiving,” said Jason Resendez, executive director of the UsAgainstAlzheimer’s Center for Brain Health Equity.
Such health disparities stem from a confluence of systemic gaps: lack of culturally competent providers, socioeconomic inequities, mistrust of doctors, stigma about symptoms of dementia and education that isn’t tailored to reach high-risk communities. Experts also say that miseducation about dementia is compounded by a lack of widespread awareness and basic literacy surrounding memory health in the United States.
Cognitive health is a key component of wellness that can be monitored over one’s lifetime, like considering nutrition or pursuing regular blood tests. Yet “very few people really consider your health from your head down,” said Petra Niles, senior manager of African American services for Alzheimer’s Los Angeles.
People need baseline points to measure cognitive function over time, just as primary care providers track height or vital signs at annual checkups. Resendez points to the annual wellness visit covered by Medicare, which includes a yearly cognitive assessment that’s underutilized because many don’t know they can access it, he said.
Such tendencies reflect larger systems: the government allocates far more funding toward research developments than to public health programming. “What keeps me up at night is the lack of focus on translation of what we’re learning in research settings into community-based settings,” Resendez said.
“There’s so much more that we understand now that we didn’t before, but that doesn’t actually equip the communities that are actually responsible for direct care,” echoed Josephine Kalipeni, executive director of Family Values at Work.
Family members who may become caregivers — more likely to be women of color — need to know the warning signs to watch for, Kalipeni said. This information is especially important because family history is a risk factor for developing dementia. Signs can include memory loss that disrupts daily life, challenges in completing familiar tasks and having new problems with words in speaking or writing. It’s not about someone losing their car keys, but forgetting what car keys are used for, Resendez said.
Read the rest at The Washington Post
Related: Latinos and a Potentially Unique Progression of Dementia (JFS Care)
Related: Sleep Deprivation Might Be Linked to Dementia (The Washington Post)
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