Advocates for Arkansans living with dementia are making policy recommendations ahead of next year's legislative session. Members of the Arkansas Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia Advisory Council met yesterday to discuss recommendations for improving care.
David Cook is director of government affairs for the Arkansas chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. He says a main goal is to expand training and continuing education for health care professionals on how to best care for those living with memory loss.
"We have done a lot in this space in terms of training first responders and our law enforcement community," Cook says. "Certainly there's a need to expand that to other first responders and emergency personnel. But we want to make sure that emergency departments are dementia capable as well. And so I know that the centers on aging is doing some of that training. So how do we build upon some of those training mandates and get them into some of the other areas?"
Cook says they hope to expand a Dementia Resource Center pilot program statewide and to expand access to respite care for caregivers. He says he'd like to see the state's Medicaid program expand coverage for diagnostic testing for those under 65.
"When we look at usage of this code across the states, especially in Kentucky, I think Kentucky has paid 400 claims in the past five or six years. So the fiscal impact is really minimal for this," he says. "But it's something that we have been asking the Medicaid department to close for the last five years. So we're still working on that as well."
More than 60,000 Arkansans over the age of 65 are currently living with Alzheimer's disease. That number is higher considering younger Arkansans and those living with other types of dementia.
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