{"id":86250,"date":"2013-11-19T14:00:22","date_gmt":"2013-11-19T19:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=86250"},"modified":"2013-11-27T15:53:56","modified_gmt":"2013-11-27T20:53:56","slug":"panel-on-memory-disorders-calls-on-uconn-health-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2013\/11\/panel-on-memory-disorders-calls-on-uconn-health-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Panel on Memory Disorders Calls on UConn Health Center"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dr.<\/a>
Dr. George Kuchel, director of the Center on Aging, appeals to the state Commission on Aging task force. (Click image for video of meeting from CT-N.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Experts from the UConn Center on Aging say shortages of health care providers, expertise and financial resources threaten Connecticut\u2019s ability as a state to treat memory disorders in its elderly population.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe currently have a state shortfall of 90 geriatricians as of today,\u201d Dr. George Kuchel<\/a>, director of the Center on Aging at the UConn Health Center, told a state Commission on Aging task force Tuesday. \u201cBut it\u2019s not just geriatric medicine, it\u2019s also nursing, social work, it\u2019s all the other medical disciplines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kuchel and colleagues Julie Robison<\/a> and Vicky Aldridge were invited before the Task Force on Alzheimer\u2019s Disease and Dementia to give a presentation on dementia, its treatments, and available community-based resources.<\/p>\n

As of 2012, Connecticut\u2019s 65-and-up population was more than 506, 000, with nearly 30 percent of that population considered \u201cthe most vulnerable,\u201d Kuchel told the task force. And within the current and projected physician shortages is a shortage of expertise.<\/p>\n

\u201cFew primary care physicians have clinical skills in dementia care,\u201d Kuchel said. \u201cFew practice in multidisciplinary settings where they have access to other skilled professionals. Primary practice must be augmented to improve dementia care because there are so few multidisciplinary memory centers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kuchel said Connecticut\u2019s annual long-term care costs now exceed $2.5 billion and make up the single largest item in the state budget. One remedy to this is already underway: an effort to identify people who are in nursing homes but don\u2019t need to be, and get them back into the community.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>
Dr. Julie Robison, geriatrics researcher at in the UConn Center on Aging. (Click image for video of meeting from CT-N.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Robison, a geriatrics researcher in the UConn Center on Aging, leads a group that is evaluating a program known as \u201cMoney Follows the Person,\u201d in which federal dollars help states ease the burden on nursing homes by rebalancing the load of patients in need of long-term care resources.<\/p>\n

Robison also explained the latest projection of supply and demand of nursing home and community-based care.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy 2025, in order to meet the projected need of people who are going to be receiving long-term support and services in the community, we\u2019d need an additional 2,416 home health aides and an additional 1,294 personal care assistants,\u201d Robison explained.<\/p>\n

The Task Force on Alzheimer\u2019s Disease and Dementia is charged with submitting a report on its findings and recommendations to the General Assembly\u2019s Public Health and Aging committees by Jan. 1.<\/p>\n

Video of the task force’s Nov. 19 meeting is available via the Connecticut Network at http:\/\/ct-n.com\/ondemand.asp?ID=9631<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Follow\u00a0the UConn Health Center<\/a> on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a> and\u00a0YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Experts from the UConn Center on Aging presented to the Task Force on Alzheimer\u2019s Disease and Dementia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":86253,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1,70],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[57,2010],"class_list":["post-86250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized","category-video"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-06 07:03:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86250"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86760,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86250\/revisions\/86760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/86253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86250"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=86250"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=86250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}