6 • SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2022 • CAREGIVER
COVER STORY
ALZHEIMER’S LAW CELEBRATED
Have
you
heard?
Was voted Best Hearing Aid
Center in Westmoreland!
Cleaning&Service • Batteries
Elizabeth Bates, M.S., CCC-A • Caroline D’Aurora, M.A., CCC-A
LawrenceMcGuinness, Au.D., CCC-A
KEYSTONE PLAZA
8279 Rte 22, Ste 11
NewAlexandria
724.668.5091
WELLINGTON SQUARE
1225 S. Main St., Ste 202A
Greensburg
724.205.6907
MOSSIDE MEDICAL CENTER
2545 Mosside Blvd
www. d a u ro rahearing. com
Monroeville
412.229.8841
FREEDOM DENTAL CENTER
2010 Rte 30 East
Ligonier
724.205.6907
adno=216407
Legislation intended to promote
awareness, aid families impacted
by degenerative diseases
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 Senior-
Care NiceNetwork’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 DelRosso, 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,” Del-
Rosso 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
PHOTOS: MICHAEL DIVITTORIO | TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Jim Pieffer, president and CEO of Presbyterian SeniorCare Network, talks about the
importance of early detection of Alzheimer’s 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.