Recent reports show disparities in the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease among Hispanic patients nationwide. A leading physician expert on care giving warns that Latinos face gaps in understanding of the disease and barriers to adequate care. Her new Spanish book offers basic, comprehensive education for Latinos facing dementia. "We already know that U.S. Latino caregivers, in particular, constitute a group that under uses dementia-specific care services. This group of caregivers may experience higher rates of physical and psychological distress related to dementia care giving. From research, we also know Latino caregivers are more likely to be younger, poorer, less educated, underemployed, and in significantly worse mental and physical health than their non Latino counterparts.
Zoë A Lewis, M.D., FACP, Diplomat of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, internist, hospice and palliative care physician, author, speaker, Alzheimer’s disease education activist, radio show producer and host of Blogtalk radio’s Hospice Radio, has been working with Alzheimer’s patients and their families for over fifteen years. She contends help is on the way for Latinos facing this disease with her newly released book, claiming comprehensive simple information is what is needed and delivered.
Dr. Lewis cites the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America report, "Investigating Caregivers’ Attitudes and Needs (I CAN 2) Survey", as her motivation to translate the book into Spanish. "We now know from this study, Latinos show the most prevalent benign family neglect of an elder with dementia, and this is secondary to lack of understanding of the disease. Making matter worse, professional and financial barriers in the healthcare system also hurt Latinos. Poor basic outreach is leaving these people out. My organization, Hope through Knowledge offers community service efforts for aging and end-of-life care. My books are listed resources with the National Alzheimer’s Association. I work along side the Alzheimer’s Association to help educate folks in my local community.
