USA2 SPOTLIGHT 

A March 28, 2016 Religion News Service release announced the release of the Leader’s Guide for Season of Caring, published by UsAgainstAlzheimer’s Clergy Network. According to the release, “The Leader’s Guide is a compendium to Seasons of Caring, which was written and published in 2014 by the Clergy Network – a diverse, multi-faith national network of clergy, laity and other faith leaders working to focus our nation’s attention on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Winner of the 2015 Caregiver Friendly Award, Seasons of Caring includes more than 140 original meditations from seventy religious leaders and care specialists – many caregivers themselves – representing seventeen faith traditions.”

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A March 28, 2016 McKnight’s opinion piece by Stuart Greenbaum underscored the need to act on Alzheimer’s. According to Greenbaum, “Considering the multiplicity of immediate and long-term benefits, hopefully one or more of the remaining presidential candidates will realize that adding Alzheimer's research to their platform would be a win-win strategy.” Stuart Greenbaum is lead author of the blog Humble Sky and president of Greenbaum Public Relations. He also serves as a governor's appointee to the California Commission on Aging.

A March 28, 2016 Fierce Healthcare article reported that “Too many "near misses" involving dementia patients occur in hospital settings, and the number is likely underreported, according to a new report from the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority.” According to the article, “Overall, Feil estimated, doctors fail to identify dementia in outpatients anywhere from 19 to 67 percent of the time. Some hospitals have addressed such risks by putting identifying stickers on dementia patients' wristbands, according to Philly.com, but Feil is unconvinced such a strategy would be effective. Instead, she told the publication, research indicates such precautions have caused widespread confusion during care transitions.”

A March 28, 2016 The Washington Post article reported on progress in the development of “a simple blood test” to detect a concussions. According to the article, “In a paper published in JAMA Neurology on Monday, researchers reported that they may be closer than ever to such a test. The study involved 600 patients admitted to a trauma center from March 2010 to March 2014. All had suffered some kind of head injury resulting in loss of consciousness, amnesia or disorientation. The researchers drew the participants' blood when they were initially admitted and at regular intervals in the days following to look at how a level of a biomarker known as glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) changed over time.”