Analyze your selected health concern and the associated best practices for health improvement. Cite supporting evidence for best practices. Consider underlying assumptions and points of uncertainty in your analysis. Describe specific goals that should be established to address the healthcare problem. Identify available community resources for a safe and effective continuum of care. Organize content so ideas flow logically with smooth transitions; contain few errors in grammar/punctuation, word choice, and spelling.

Preliminary Care Coordination Plan-Alzheimer’s disease (AD)

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) remains a health concern among the elderly. It is the most common form of dementia, mainly affecting adults aged 65 and above. AD is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder with an insidious onset that results in significant impairment of cognitive and behavioral functionalities. Significant in this disease are memory loss and declines in comprehension, judgment, and language functionalities. AD is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S., accounting for over 120,000 deaths in 2019 alone. Liang et al. (2021) report that while mortality rates of cardiovascular illnesses showed a downward trend in the last decade, the mortality rates of AD and other forms of dementia increased by 145%. Management of the disease also fetches considerable healthcare costs, with unpaid dementia caregiving currently valued at over 250 billion dollars. These grime statistics reveal the severity of AD and why it is a concern to healthcare systems in the country.

Best Practices for Health Improvement in AD

Patient-centered dementia care is the gold standard of dementia management. This approach addresses the specific needs of patients with AD and other forms of dementia. The major components of patient-centered dementia care include the preservation of human dignity even in incarceration, promoting purposeful living and holistic care, and establishing relationship-based services to support a sense of self (Marulappa et al., 2022). By preserving human dignity and meeting their needs, this approach improves the quality of life of these individuals.

Another best practice in improving patients’ health with AD is increasing the detection of cognitive decline among individuals and encouraging diagnostic evaluation for AD. Findings reveal that close to half of older adults living in the U.S. do not have a formal medical diagnosis for the disease (Rasmussen & Langerman, 2019). This is attributable to individuals not following up on recommendations by physicians to obtain a diagnostic evaluation and lack of or inadequate community screening for dementia. The best practice in dementia care is for physician and non-physician caregivers to help increase the detection of the disease by encouraging diagnostic evaluation of the disease (Rasmussen & Langerman, 2019). This can be done in primary, residential, and community settings. Early detection of cognitive decline enables prompt initiation of pharmacotherapy to slow the disease’s progression and improve these patients’ quality of life. This underscores the need for early detection.

Another best practice is to meet the psychosocial, informational, and educational needs of patients with AD and their families. This can be achieved through a family-centered care approach. Patients and their families should be equipped with information and education on the disease process and management interventions. This will enable them to participate in the caregiving process and prepare them mentally for the care requirements that this disease presents with. Vital information given to patients and families in AD management includes information on disease progression, stress management, management of AD behavioral and psychological manifestations, and the risk factors for the disease (Maslow & Fortinsky, 2018). Including family members in comprehensive disease management allows them to receive targeted information about the disease, enabling them to bridge care gaps that may be unfamiliar to non-contact healthcare providers.

An assumption made when doing this analysis is that all patients presenting with AD and other forms of dementia will cooperate with their caregivers in designing therapeutic plans targeted at improving their health. A point of uncertainty in this analysis is the cultural considerations for patients with AD and other forms of dementia. Cultural interpretations of the manifestations seen in AD differ and may influence an individual’s health-seeking behavior, commitment to therapy, and cooperation with healthcare providers. Effective management of the disease requires that the patients, patients’ families, and caregivers have a shared vision.

Specific Goals to be Established in Addressing AD

The overall goal of AD management is to improve the health and quality of life of persons living with AD. The first goal of AD management is to increase the number of older adults who know they have the disease. This can be achieved by encouraging diagnostic evaluations on at-risk groups at various levels of care. The second goal is to lower preventable hospitalizations among adults with the disease. This can be attained through early detection and aggressive management of the disease through comprehensive and patient-centered a