Clinical Practice after Diagnosis of Different Dementias

As the estimated 5.4 million people in the U.S. with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia (ADRD) approach a predicted 16 million by 2050, careful diagnosis, treatments, and family care management become more critical than ever. While health providers educate patients and family caregivers about diagnosis and treatments for progressive dementia, important strategies that address the family’supcoming lifestyle changes in their lifestyle,job or home routines, driving safety, financial and legal matters, and linkage to important community and internet resources may not be covered. Not only are health and behavior changes of progressive dementia important to know for long-term care planning and management, but also understanding how different types of dementia impact different abilities over time is critical for timing and prioritizing steps for care planning and management over the long term.The varied decline and challenges of different progressive dementias mandates a strong role for the health provider and health team to guide the family over the long?term of clinical care. This article overviews briefly major categories of dementia (Mild Cognitive Impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementias, and Parkinson disease with dementia as well as parkinsonisms such as Lewy body dementia, progressive supranuclear palsy,and corticobasal degeneration) and provides a tool, a Checklist on Family Matters,for the clinician to offer the patient and family caregiver(s) to plan for the long?term care management.