The Journey with Dementia: The Impact of Palliative Medicine and Hospice Care

The number of people diagnosed with dementia has progressively grown in recent decades. According to some estimates, around 5.8 million people in the United States suffer from dementia-related diseases, with 5.6 million older than age 65 being at risk. Dementia-related diseases are not like cancer patients or patients with other chronic diseases like diabetes, but families suffer physically and emotionally.

In this podcast, Perry Limes, the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Hospice of the Chesapeake interviews Eric Bush, MD, the Chief Medical Officer at Hospice of the Chesapeake and Chesapeake Supportive Care and talks about dementia. They discuss what is the medical definition of dementia and how it is related to Alzheimer's.

They also discussed who is more at risk, what the symptoms are, and what the patient and family should do if they are diagnosed. They also discussed the importance of palliative care, also known as supportive care, for those with dementia, as well as the advantages of establishing a dementia continuum of care program.

Finally, Dr. Bush gave the audience some takeaways in case anyone in the audience has a family member who has been diagnosed with dementia or knows someone who has.

Key Takeaways

The Medical Definition of Dementia and the people who are at risk
The Symptoms and Diagnosis of having Dementia
The Role of Palliative Care or Supportive Care with Dementia Patients
Continuum of Care and the Benefits of it in regards to Dementia Patients
Takeaways and Tips from our Guest, Dr. Bush, to Families with Dementia Patients

Quotes

So the earlier you can get these things (supportive care) implemented, the earlier you can get help for patients and families.

I just wanted to go a little more into what makes the dementia journey so difficult. And one of those aspects is that it may have a lot of different twists and turns, and various varieties of dementia might have different rates of progression. However, the practical issues are very universal.

Websites Mentioned in the Episode

https://www.alz.org/
https://getpalliativecare.org/
https://www.hospicechesapeake.org/
http://chesapeakesupportivecare.org/

Featured in this Episode

Eric Bush, MD, RPh, MBA, CHCQM
Chief Medical Officer at Hospice of the Chesapeake and Chesapeake Supportive Care
Profile: https://www.hospicechesapeake.org/eric-bush-md-rph-mba/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-bush-md-975b1844
Website: https://www.hospicechesapeake.org/

Perry Limes
Director, Strategic Partnerships
Hospice of the Chesapeake
Profile: https://www.hospicechesapeake.org/perry-limes/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/perrylimes

Thanks and Appreciations

We'd like to thank the John & Cathy Belcher Institute for their generous support of our community outreach and education programs.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
00:44 Dr. Bush’s Background
03:27 What is Dementia? And who is at risk?
06:08 Symptoms and Diagnosis of having Dementia
14:35 The role of Palliative Care and Supportive Care with Dementia Patients
18:43 What is Continuum of Care?
23:06 Takeaways from our Gues