Kaiser Permanente and the Alzheimer's Association Announce Results of Five-Year Dementia Care...

Business Editors & Health/Medical Writers

PASADENA, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--July 19, 2001

Findings of a five-year study, "The Dementia Care Project," which will set a new benchmark for service to Alzheimer's patients and their families, were presented to a group of

Alzheimer's Association surveys indicate that 19 million Americans say they have a family member with the disease. Caregivers are more likely to be hospitalized and are three times more likely to become clinically depressed than others in their age group. Elderly spouses who are caregivers are 63 percent more likely to die than other spouses of the same age.

The Alzheimer's Association Los Angeles and Kaiser Permanente's Metropolitan Los Angeles Service Area have been engaged for over five years in a partnership to improve the system of care for members with dementia and their caregivers. This collaboration was the first quality initiative, nationwide, implemented between an Alzheimer's Association chapter and a managed care organization. It is estimated that 5,000 Kaiser Permanente members are affected by dementia in the Metropolitan Los Angeles Service Area (LAMC).

Together the organizations developed guidelines for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and later adopted post-diagnostic care guidelines, trained primary care providers and social workers in dementia care, and hired and trained two Kaiser Permanente care managers to work specifically with dementia families and their physicians.

Debra Cherry, Ph.D., Associate Director for Alzheimer's Association Los Angeles, said, "Over the years, the work done in this initial partnership has stimulated several quality-targeted off-shoots, including the development of Kaiser Permanente's Alzheimer's Disease Management Guidelines. We have Kaiser Permanente to thank for nationwide efforts to improve dementia care."

At the joint annual 2001 meeting of the American Society on Aging and the National Council on Aging in New Orleans this past March, Kaiser Permanente's Metropolitan Los Angeles Region and the Alzheimer's Association Los Angeles were presented with a joint award for innovative programming in managed care and aging. The award-winning project is a multi-year collaborative venture funded by both Kaiser Permanente's Garfield Foundation and the National Alzheimer's Association.

Kaiser Permanente's team, which was led by Physician-in-Charge, Continuing Care Services, Ralph Lee Yep, MD, included Los Angeles Medical Center Social Medicine Director, Edith Eddleman-Robinson, LCSW; Gerontology Clinical Nurse Specialist, Mary Davis, RN; Roy Chaffee, LCSW (Kaiser West Los Angeles); and Lenore Schwankovsky, Organizational Research Project Manager.

For additional information about dementia and Alzheimer's, contact the Alzheimer's Association Los Angeles at 323/938-3379. The National Alzheimer's Association also has a comprehensive Web site at http://www.alz.org and a 24-hour information and support line at 800/272-3900 that offers such options as immediate connection to a care consultant and assistance in languages other than English.

Kaiser Permanente, California, is a prepaid, group practice health maintenance organization (HMO) serving more than 6.1 million members throughout the state. More than 7,000 Permanente medical group physicians in both The Permanente Medical Group (TPMG) in Northern California and the Southern California Permanente Medical Group (SCPMG), as well as 55,300 Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals employees, provide care to Health Plan members. There are 28 major medical centers organized into 12 service areas throughout California.