Racial Disparities in Dementia: Strategies to Address the Inequity
The disproportionally high rates of Alzheimer’s Disease and other forms of dementia in the black community is an underappreciated topic of racial health disparities, and the understanding of dementia and resources for addressing these challenges is generally lower in black communities than in white communities. This is a health inequity topic that we must begin to address more effectively. This webinar will share both data and examples of how serious this problem is for the aging black community, and then most of the time will focus on what can be done about it.
The webinar will share inspiring examples of what can be done in a community to support the well-being of people on this journey and those who care for them. Our healthcare system is too often driven by financial forces, so low-cost, high-value approaches to delaying the more challenging symptoms of and improving the care of dementia are often missed opportunities.
Participants will learn how Alter is helping churches adopt multi-faceted strategies to help their members and their neighbors facing the challenges related to dementia. They’ll also learn about dementia choirs that focus on well-loved songs endemic to African-American culture and traditional gospel music. They will also see how research is identifying the types of training, activities, and innovative technologies that can extend the quality of life after people are diagnosed with dementia.
Join us in building a movement to enhance brain health, understanding of dementia, and the ability of an aging black population to address the difficulties that go along with dementia.
Speakers
Dr. Bashir Easter, founder of Melanin Minded, LLC. Dr. Bashir Easter has focused his career on serving the community. His focus narrowed to helping caregivers after his mom was diagnosed with dementia. He noticed that while there were services available in the community, they were difficult to access. His family struggled to find and provide his mom with quality care for years. This is the driving force behind Melanin Minded LLC.
Bill Barberg, a co-founder of the Population Health Learning Collaborative, is the President and Founder of InsightFormation, Inc., a Minnesota-based consulting and technology company that helps communities, regions, and states address complex social and health issues that require multi-stakeholder collaboration. His deep background in strategy implementation has been featured in dozens of conference presentations, papers, and webinars.
Bill was selected to write the chapter on “Implementing Population Health Strategies” for the book, “Solving Population Health Problems through Collaboration” (Routledge, 2017). His recommendations for using strategy maps is featured as a core recommendation in the new report by the National Academy of Public Administration. Bill recently co-authored a paper for the Journal of Change Management on “Leading Social Transformations to Create Public Value and Advance the Common Good”.
Listen to Bill Barberg describe strategy mapping in a 7-minute excerpt from a Zoom discussion he had with Teepa Snow before a webinar they did together.
Karah Alexander, MPH, MS, PhD(c), PhD Candidate, Emory University. Karah earned her Master's in Public Health from Georgia State University (GSU) and is currently a PhD candidate in Nursing at Emory University under the mentorship of Dr. Fayron Epps (founder of Alter). She has been working with Dr. Epps' since 2018 while she was faculty at GSU and beginning the Alter program. Karah is also finishing a graduate certificate in health literacy from the GSU College of Education & Human Development. Her dissertation work examines health literacy and medical discrimination in Black dementia caregivers and explores literacy as a factor of inequities in underserved communities. Karah is passionate about improving health literacy in the Black community and examining health literacy as an influential factor of disparities in the Black dementia caregiving experience.
Cynthia Benjamin, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at Together. Cynthia brings expertise as a business strategist and design professional business strategist in healthcare and innovation for underserved populations. Her work ranges from social networks to data analytics to consumer products. She has been a design engineer at IDEO, a Management Consultant with Strategic Decisions Group and IMS Health, Director of Innovation for the Thrive Foundation, and is a Lecturer in Design and Innovation at the design school at Stanford University.
Karen O. Moss, PhD, RN, CNL, Assistant Professor, The Ohio State University. Dr. Moss is a registered nurse and nurse scientist who is focused on improving pain and healthcare decision-making (advance care planning) outcomes by advancing palliative and end-of-life care for older adults living with dementia and their family caregivers. She examines multiple perspectives on factors that influence pain and end-of-life decision-making processes for Black/African American older adults living with dementia and their family caregivers. This includes examining pain and stress in older adults living with dementia and their family caregivers. Dr. Moss’ research is also focused on developing and testing a co-created peer support program to support Black/African American dementia family caregivers. Through her work, Dr. Moss and her team will improve the quality of life of Black/African family caregivers and their older adults living with dementia.
Kenya Engram, Board Certified Music Therapist. For the past six years, she has worked as a licensed and board-certified music therapist in Atlanta, GA, following her love for working with both seniors and parents-to-be. Kenya founded Nurturing Notes Music Therapy as a way to assist both families and individuals with some of life’s biggest changes, growing into parenthood and growing into seniorhood. She believes that using music and movement is vital to supporting rehabilitation for seniors, helping them maintain quality of life, and helping them age with vitality and grace.
Kenya holds both a bachelor’s (BS) and a master’s (MMT) in Music Therapy and is trained in the Sound Birthing method for Music Therapy Assisted Childbirth. She also is a certified Music Together teacher.
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