Transforming the Culture of Dementia Care: Podcast with Anne Basting, Ab Desai, Susan McFadden, and Judy Long

What would it take to transform dementia care?  While a lot of hope and money is being put into new monoclonal amyloid antibodies like lecanemab, the evidence is that while they are great in reducing amyloid in the brain for those with early Alzheimer’s disease, the effects are at best modest in slowing down the decline in cognition and function (more to be said on that in an upcoming podcast).

In order to truly transform dementia care we need to think much broader than the amyloid hypothesis.  So on today's podcast we invite four brilliant individuals to talk about their perspective on how to change how we as a society and health care system partner with individuals with dementia. These amazing guests include:

• Susan McFadden, PhD, retired professor emerita (psychology and gerontology) at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, an experienced researcher and practitioner in the field of dementia, and creator of the Fox Valley Memory Project. Her most recent book is Dementia Friendly Communities: why we need them and how we can create them 
• Anne Basting, PhD, a MacArthur Genius Grant awardee and professor (English/Theatre), University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.  She created TimeSlips which we talk about in our podcast.  Her most recent book is Creative Care: a revolutionary approach to dementia and elder care 
• Abhilash Desai, MD, geriatric psychiatrist, adjunct associate professor in the department of psychiatry at University of Washington School of Medicine, and poet!  He wrote a book titled “Psychiatric consultation in long term care” that has a strengths based approach to staging dementia (how cool is that)
• Judy Long, MDiv, BCC, palliative care chaplain and educator at UCSF and caregiver.  She directs UCSF MERI’s patient, family, and clinician support with classes and consultation on resiliency, well-being, and grief.

We discuss the importance of viewing individuals with dementia from a lens of resilience, the importance of creative engagement (as noted in Anne and Susan’s wonderful article on this subject), the role of collaborative care, and what we can do to improve inclusivity for individuals with dementia in our community and health care systems.