dementia – GW Nursing Magazine

October 7, 2020June 9, 2021

A Partnership to Break Down Stereotypes About Alzheimer’s

The Office of Clinical Practice & Community Engagement (OCE), created in 2019, serves as a central resource for GW Nursing’s community engagement partnerships and activities. Led by Karen Drenkard, the school’s inaugural Associate Dean for Clinical Practice and Community Engagement, the OCE houses GW Nursing’s centers (Center for Aging, Health and Humanities and the Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement), global initiatives, and community engagement initiatives.

The community engagement initiatives aim to create partnerships using GW Nursing resources — faculty, staff, and students — with community organizations to enrich service-learning, scholarship, development opportunities, creative activity and research endeavors.

At GW Nursing, we prioritize our engagement in the community as some of our most important work. We are fortunate to have a multitude of local, regional and international partners, including community service organizations and volunteer groups. The OCE aims to leverage these partnerships through a mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources to enhance our curriculum, teaching and learning experiences. Our partnerships help GW Nursing prepare educated, engaged nurses who contribute to the health of the diverse communities they serve.

One of our excellent partnerships is with the Alzheimer’s Association, an organization that seeks to “lead the way to end Alzheimer’s and all other dementia by accelerating global research, driving risk reduction and early detection, and maximizing quality care and support.”

In August, the Alzheimer’s Association and GW Nursing co-hosted a virtual webinar on dementia for nurse practitioner students, community health students and capstone students. This event consisted of an Alzheimer’s case study simulation, small group discussion and a Q&A with experts, all designed to introduce nursing students and stimulate conversation around dementia. There are also volunteer opportunities for students, faculty and staff through Memory Cafés and Virtual Community Education Programs.

Through this partnership, GW Nursing and the Alzheimer’s Association both hope to break down stereotypes of Alzheimer’s for our nursing students, equipping them to become advocates and better caregivers. The Alzheimer’s Association also conducts training and outreach with established medical professionals, but their hope is, by working with nursing students before they are deployed, that our students will enter their future jobs with more compassion, knowledge and skills in their tool belt. The goal is that our students, once professionals, will understand the unique challenges that come with working with dementia patients and will help to improve the way dementia is cared for in hospitals and the health system at large.

by HALEY STEPP

May 11, 2019October 12, 2020

A New Advocate for Geriatric Nursing at GW Aging Center

“I like to eat” may be an unusual entry point for a discussion in gerontological health care, but for Melissa Batchelor it makes perfect sense. Patients with Alzheimer’s or dementia are often robbed of this simple pleasure; swallowing problems can lead to weight loss and choking in patients with middle- and late-stage Alzheimer’s. Sometimes patients may not even recognize the food on their plate.

“There is a huge need for education and training [for Alzheimer’s caregivers], especially around mealtimes,” said Dr. Batchelor, an associate professor of nursing and geriatric nursing researcher.

She specializes in feeding patients with dementia and has advised for and appeared in AARP’s new video series, “Home Alone Alliance,” which teaches family members basic caregiving skills. Dr. Batchelor now brings her advocacy for gerontological patients to her new role as director of GW’s interprofessional Center for Aging, Health and Humanities.

In the classroom, Dr. Batchelor counsels students that “health care is not all about acute care.”

“I think it’s still a pervasive thought for students to not want to work in long-term care, but it’s an exciting and viable career path,” she said.

The center is known for its education programs and innovations in clinical process, and Dr. Batchelor plans to create a group of other researchers and clinicians in aging to build the center’s research capacity. “I want to put GW on the map for excellence in aging education and policy,” she said.

Dr. Batchelor brings the expertise and network needed to expand the center’s reach and influence.

In a previous role at Duke University, Dr. Batchelor was featured in a series of videos for NOSH: Nursing Optimizing Supportive Handfeeding, which demonstrated hand-feeding techniques for nurses and family caregivers of patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s.

As a health and aging policy fellow serving the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging in the office of Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), she worked on the Building Our Largest Dementia (BOLD) Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act. The legislation enabled building of public health infrastructure across the country to combat Alzheimer’s disease and preserve brain health.

The president signed the BOLD Act in December 2018, and Dr. Batchelor is now eager to watch how it will be implemented over the next five to 10 years, she said.

For more information about the Center for Aging, Health and Humanities, visit go.gwu.edu/agingcenter. To see the “Home Alone Alliance” video series, visit go.gwu.edu/HomeAloneAlliance.

by RUTH ADAMS

May 11, 2019October 12, 2020

Helping Caregivers Give Care

Melissa Batchelor on steps of Capitol building

AUTHOR MELISSA BATCHELOR

On Dec. 31, 2018, the president signed into law Building Our Largest Dementia (BOLD) Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act, bringing much needed attention to the needs of over 5.7 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

I served on the Senate’s Special Committee for Aging in the office of the chair, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), during my Health and Aging Policy Fellowship in 2018. A large part of the work I did for the senator and Aging Committee focused on Alzheimer’s disease and working to get the BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s legislation passed in the 115th Congress.

More than 5 million Americans over the age of 65 are living with Alzheimer’s and that number is expected to triple by 2050. Of the top 10 leading causes of death for older adults, Alzheimer’s is the only one that cannot be prevented, slowed down or treated.

The number of deaths from Alzheimer’s increased 145 percent between 2000 and 2019, while deaths from other diseases, such as heart disease and cancer, decreased in that time frame. The cost of unpaid family caregiving is estimated at over $232 billion and more than 18 billion hours.

While we wait for a cure, those with the disease will need care. All types of dementia are essentially “brain failure,” and providing care requires a unique set of skills. Our communities and families do not have these skills in today’s society, and the BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act seeks to address this.

Headed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act will establish Centers of Excellence to implement the CDC’s Healthy Brain Initiative through state and national partnerships.

Most caregivers are friends and family members, and their lives are negatively impacted by the financial, emotional and physical cost of caring for someone with dementia. The Centers of Excellence will promote public education on early detection and diagnosis. By supporting early detection, the BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act allows persons living with the disease and their caregivers more time to plan and prepare their health care and end-of-life strategies.

As the BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act moves into the implementation phase, the work will be accomplished through cooperative agreements among public, private and nonprofit organizations. The CDC’s proposed action plan has one goal to monitor prevalence rates across the country. Data grants will improve the analysis of data collected on Alzheimer’s caregivers, and will illuminate health disparities at the state and national levels.

We know that Alzheimer’s disease is on track to be the costliest condition in our nation’s history and is the most under-recognized threat to public health in modern times. The BOLD Act is among the first to draw attention to the enormous burden this disease brings. There are things we know to do that help, and we need to get that information out to the public to minimize the impact Alzheimer’s has on our families, communities and the nation.