Community-Based Early Dementia Screening Leads to Support for Caregivers and People Living with Dementia

Meeting Dates: 
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
Meeting Time and Location: 

1pm Webinar

Note: 

Community based organizations play a key role in conducting dementia screenings in the community. These screenings can lead to referrals for a comprehensive medical assessment to assist in diagnosing dementia. In this webinar, participants will learn about two ACL Alzheimer’s Disease Programs Initiative grantees conducting dementia screenings in the community. The Chinese American Service League had success getting 596 of 800 people screened for dementia using the Mini-Cog. Some clients were linked to specialists for dementia diagnostic evaluation, and others were provided with case management and other services to meet their needs. OMID, through various outreach events and programs, has been successful in signing up community members for early memory screenings, using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) since August 2021. Once screening scores are calculated, case managers work with community members whose scores signal early memory loss to educate them about OMID’s care coordination services and how they can assist them with securing additional testing and observation. These screenings are a pathway to dementia diagnosis. The benefits of these screenings cannot be underestimated even if the process to get a client to a medical assessment is lengthy.

Direct questions to NADRC-Webinars@rti.org