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COVER STORY
A new state law promotes Alzheimer’s
awareness and, its backers
say, will help provide assistance
to families impacted by it and
other degenerative diseases.
Local health care leaders and
other officials gathered Feb. 17
at Presbyterian SeniorCare Nice-
Network’s facility in Oakmont
to celebrate the Early Detection
and Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or
a Related Disorder Act.
The bill was authored last year
by state Rep. Carrie Lewis Del-
Rosso, R-Allegheny/Westmoreland,
and signed by Gov. Tom
Wolf earlier this month.
“The early detection of Alzheimer’s
disease is absolutely critical,”
said Jim Pieffer, president
and CEO of Presbyterian Senior-
Care Network. “In our work, we
see all the time how underdiagnosed
Alzheimer’s disease is and
its impact on individuals living
with the disease and their families.”
Alzheimer’s causes cognitive
decline and memory impairment,
behavioral and psychiatric problems,
and loss of ability to care
for oneself.
DelRosso, an Oakmont resident
and former borough councilwoman,
said the law creates a structure
to unite patients and health
care providers around cognitive
concerns that will lead to an earlier
diagnosis.
The Alzheimer’s Association
Greater Pennsylvania Chapter,
as well as other public and private
organizations with expertise in
cogitative decline, will work with
the state Department of Health
and the state Department of Aging
to develop a “toolkit.”
That kit would provide “best
practices and cognitive assessment
tools including the use of
appropriate diagnostics to assist
the primary care workforce in the
detection, diagnosis, treatment
and care planning for individuals
with Alzheimer’s disease,” the bill
reads, in part.
The state also would post information
online about understanding
cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s
or related disorders, including
the difference between normal
cognitive aging and dementia.
DelRosso said she was inspired
to do something about cognitive
disorders after the death of one of
her friend’s mother, who passed
a few years after being diagnosed
with Lewy body dementia.
“It happened so quickly, so rapidly,”
DelRosso said. “This woman
was a professor. It turned her
life around. This was my way, and
(that of) the Alzheimer’s Association,
of looking at some sort of a
toolkit that health care providers
can use in their preventative care
models to actually help people.”
Jen Ebersole, Alzheimer’s Association
state government affairs
director, said she reached
out to DelRosso, as the group does
with all newly elected legislators,and the two really connected on
promoting education.
“We hear time and time again
that physicians feel like they’re
on the front lines of diagnosing,but yet not all are equipped with
the education or the tools to make
a proper diagnosis,” Ebersole
said. “It’s about having the cognitive
assessments available, best
clinical practices available, to
actually do the assessment and
make that diagnosis, and care
referral information.”
Michael DiVittorio is a Tribune-
Review staff writer. You can
contact Michael at 412-871-2367,
mdivittorio@triblive.com or via
Twitter @MikeJdiVittorio.
by MICHAEL DIVITTORIO
Legislation intended to promote awareness,
aid families impacted by degenerative diseases
PHOTOS: MICHAEL DIVITTORIO | TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Jim Pieffer, president and CEO of Presbyterian SeniorCare Network,
talks about the importance of early detection of Alzheimer’s Disease
at a news conference Feb. 17 in Oakmont.
State Rep. Carrie Lewis
DelRosso, R-Allegheny/
Westmoreland, talks about
the passage of her bill, the
Early Detection and Diagnosis
of Alzheimer’s or a Related
Disorder Act. She says she was
inspired to take action after a
friend’s mother died of Lewy
body dementia.