P3‐311: Severity of psychiatric symptoms correlates with activities of daily living and caregiver burden in frontotemporal dementia

Abstract

Background: To develop a model for collaborative care for persons with dementia and their family caregivers in the San Francisco Bay Area. Methods:By delivering consistent compassionate care, strong relationships can be built between providers and the patients/families they work with. Listening carefully to desires and needs, including a desire to help others, practitioners can then work with their philanthropic organization to develop a business plan that can be supported with donations. The goal of the partnership is to provide newly diagnosed patients and their families a range of dementia related services, support and education as the disease progresses. Results: With extensive research and development effort, we were able to secure a $20 million (US$) endowment gift to create a Brain Health Center (BHC) at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. This center will offer a multidisciplinary care team to diagnose, assess, treat, counsel and support families throughout the course of Alzheimer’s and related disorders. The team consists of medical providers in neurology, psychiatry, pharmacy and geriatric medicine, neuropsychologists and therapists, neuro-imaging, social work, physical and occupational therapy, nutrition and nursing. The team also includes staff employed by the Alzheimer’s Association but housed within the BHC to work as a member of the “Care Navigation Team”. Education programs including “Savvy Caregiver” classes, “Living with Alzheimer’s Disease,” Know the Ten Signs of Alzheimer’s, “Maximizing Your Memory” and various caregiver training programs are offered through the BHC by the onsite Alzheimer’s Family Care Specialist. This clinician and other team members offer structured and unstructured groups, provide referrals to off-site support services/groups, answer questions about the disease process and smoothly lead patients/families through the healthcare maze. Conclusions: This poster presents a conceptual framework for creating partnerships that utilize the strengths of each institution to positively impact quality of dementia care, and allow easier access to resources to facilitate earlier diagnosis. Given the increasing need for patient and family services that is becoming difficult to finance, this manner of program building will fill a gap going forward. This project can serve as a model for replication at other centers.