Rural Healthy Aging®
Network News
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Confronting Challenges,
Exploring Solution
The Alzheimer’s Association, West Virginia
Chapter’s Annual Education Conference is the
most comprehensive education venue in West
Virginia dedicated to improving the way you care
for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease.
Confronting Challenges, Exploring Solutions is
your opportunity to learn from the best as we
take a hard look at the challenges of Alzheimer’s
and work together to find solutions. We will be
featuring three topics that often present
extremely challenging situations for families and
healthcare professionals: Driving, Sexuality, and
End of Life Decisions.
We will kick off this year’s conference with a
dinner on the evening of March 14. Our dinner
keynote speaker is Christopher Colenda, M.D,
M.P.H, Chancellor of WVU Health Sciences. Dr.
Colenda has been honored for his work in
geriatric psychiatry. Prior to coming to West
Virginia, he served as the Jean and Thomas
McMullin Dean of the College of Medicine of
Texas A&M Health Science Center and Vice
President for Clinical Affairs.
The conference will be March 14-15, 2011 at the
Charleston Civic Center. If you would like more
information about the Annual Education
Conference, please contact the Alzheimer's
Association at 1.800.491.2717 or visit alz.org/wv
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New Additions to the
Federal Healthy People
Report
The Federal Report, Healthy People, will now
include national health goals and objectives
which are related to Alzheimer’s disease and
other types of dementia. This report was
created in 1979 as a way to provide science
based objectives which will help improve the
health of Americans and published every 10
years.
The first objective Alzheimer’s and dementia
objective for Healthy People 2010 is to increase
the awareness of Alzheimer’s disease amongst
those who have it and their families. Less than
half of those who have Alzheimer’s disease
have a diagnosis of it in their medical records.
The second objective is to reduce the proportion
of preventable hospitalizations in those
diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and other
dementias. Those with this disease have higher
hospital admissions, longer stays, and higher
hospital readmission rates. This all translates to
higher healthcare costs.
Further information on the inclusion of
Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia in Healthy
People 2010 can be found on both the
Alzheimer’s Association and Healthy People
websites.
http://www.alz.org/news_and_events_firsttime_inclusion.asp
http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/default.aspx
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West Virginia Long Term
Care Partnership
The West Virginia Long Term Care
Partnership is an evolving statewide
partnership of public and private professionals
committed to fostering West Virginians’ ability
to age in place with improved economic
security and in the setting they choosewhether in their home, a residential care
facility, or another location. In fulfilling its
mission, the project depends on collaboration
from health sciences centers, state agencies,
professional associations, private medical
providers, and community groups. By
emphasizing collaboration and
communication, partners work together to
address barriers and expand existing
strengths in West Virginia’s long-term care
support system.
The partnership is always looking for new
organizations and individuals to participate in
its projects. Current initiatives include:
exploring ways to improve the quality and
availability of in-home direct care aides and
the development of a state strategic plan for
addressing Alzheimer’s disease. The
Partnership also conducts outreach on West
Virginia Elder Economic Security Standard™
Index - a data report quantifying how much it
really costs to be someone age 65 and older
and living in each of West Virginia’s 55
counties.
To learn more about the Partnership, review
its publications and get involved in this
important work, please visit
http://www.wvltcpartnership.org.
