Dementia Care on Air

In this episode, Dr. Anna Chodos speaks with Elena Portacolone, PhD, MBA, MPH, about her work understanding the experiences of approximately 4.3 million older adults in the U.S. who live alone and have cognitive impairment or dementia. They talk about how common this is, how we can detect it, how we can make the most of the "miracle" of making a diagnosis in someone who lives alone, and how to build a team around that person.

Dr. Portacolone is an Associate Professor of Sociology in the Institute for Health and Aging at UCSF and a Pepper Center Scholar at the Division of Geriatric Medicine at UCSF. Some of her key articles:

• On Living Along with Alzheimer's Disease
• Effects and Meaning of Receiving a Diagnosis of Mild Cognitive Impairment or Alzheimer's Disease When One Lives Alone
• The concept of precarity in older age in the US, and specifically, among older adults living alone with cognitive impairment.
• Expectations of older adults with cognitive impairment of their relationships with health care providers.
• The Living Alone with Cognitive Impairment Project's Policy Advisory Group on Long-Term Services and Supports

Free CE/CME credits will be available only for podcasts released on or after January 2025.

In the first episode of the Dementia Care on Air podcast series, Dr. Anna Chodos speaks with Dementia Care Aware’s lead on educational development, Dr. Josette Rivera. She will discuss the tool for cognitive health assessment, and explain how to screen your patients, and how to incorporate that into your practice.
Detecting dementia begins with the cognitive health assessment, a quick screen for cognitive decline, functional decline, and a person’s support system.

Check out our training programs and resources at www.DementiaCareAware.org. Dementia Care Aware is co-led by West Health and UCSF.
Free CE/CME credits will be available only for podcasts released on or after January 2025.

In this podcast, Anna Chodos, MD, MPH, Executive Director of Dementia Care Aware, sits down with Wagahta Semere, MD an internist and researcher on caregiving in San Francisco, and Joseph Herrera, MSW, a social worker in geriatrics and a dementia specialty clinic working primarily with Latino patients in Los Angeles County. Together they will discuss the challenges of assessing and connecting in the clinic with caregivers of people living with dementia. The podcast delves into the importance of health care teams taking the time to assess caregivers’ needs, building relationships with them, and connecting them to available resources. The conversation also covers practical tips for fostering trust and the consideration of cultural factors affecting a person’s acceptance of the caregiving role as well as the need for self-care opportunities for caregivers. Overall, this podcast provides valuable insights into the practical aspects and nuances of working with caregivers in primary care.
Wagahta Semere is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco in the Division of General Internal Medicine, and Joseph Herrera is a social worker at the University of Southern California/Rancho Los Amigos California Alzheimer Disease Center.
Free CE/CME credits will be available only for podcasts released on or after January 2025.

In this episode, we are joined by two addiction medicine doctors in the UCSF Department of Medicine: Christine Soran, MD, MPH, assistant professor, primary care clinician, and medical director of the Office-Based Buprenorphine Induction Clinic; and Triveni Defries, MD, MPH, assistant professor, primary care clinician, and addiction medicine specialist.

We will discuss how substance use disorders affect cognition, how to adapt the cognitive health assessment for patients with substance use disorders, and how to incorporate a workup for substance use disorders in the next- steps evaluation. You will also gain a deeper understanding and practical skills for how to better assess older patients for substance use disorders.

Click here to watch a webinar, Adapting the Cognitive Health Assessment for Patients with Serious Mental Illness or Substance Use Disorder, featuring Dr. Soran and Dr. Defries.

Podcast listeners are eligible to receive FREE 0.5 CME, AAFP, or CAMFT credit. MOC is also provided. Please complete the survey below to claim credit.

Free CE/CME credits will be available only for podcasts released on or after January 2025.

Join Dementia Care Aware for a discussion on Paid Family Leave (PFL) and how opportunities can be increased for family caregivers to access PFL in California. Our guest speakers, Sharon Terman, Director of the Work and Family Program, and Katherine Wutchiett, Senior Staff Attorney at Legal Aid at Work, will shed light on the challenges faced by caregivers, who often feel compelled to quit their jobs when the person they support is diagnosed with a serious illness like dementia and they often don’t know that PFL is available to them. Learn how to empower caregivers to make use of this benefit to protect their income and employment.

Refer people to the Work and Family Helpline, 800-880-8047, or email [email protected].

To learn more about PFL, visit legalaidatwork.org/wf

Podcast listeners are eligible to receive FREE 0.5 CME, AAFP, or CAMFT credit. MOC is also provided. Please complete the survey below to claim credit.

Free CE/CME credits will be available only for podcasts released on or after January 2025.