Utah residents are invited to a free Alzheimer’s Caregiving Educational Conference to be held in West Valley City. The Alzheimer's Foundation of America will hold the conference on Wednesday, May 15 at the Embassy Suites by Hilton at 324 Market Street in West Valley City. The conference will run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“Attendees will learn about everything from caregiving strategies to early detection, healthy aging, dementia therapies and treatments, estate planning and local resources,” said Sandy Silverstein from the AFA. “The conference is for family caregivers as well as professionals and the general public. People who come to the event will learn healthy living habits and will get an opportunity to learn about early detection, and can get a memory screening to see if they might have any memory issues.” Those free, confidential memory screenings will be provided throughout the conference.

Silverstein said May is Older Americans Month, so the AFA holds events nationwide to talk about subjects that include a new Alzheimer drug that is pending FDA approval; frontotemporal—the same disease that both actor Bruce Willis and TV talk show host Wendy Williams are battling; and the reason the disease’s statistics continue to grow.

“Knowledge is a useful and powerful tool that can help make any situation easier to navigate, especially something as challenging as caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease,” said Charles J. Fuschillo Jr., AFA president and CEO. “Connecting families with useful, practical information and support that can help them now and be better prepared for the future is what this conference is all about.” 

Sessions will include information on development of a novel therapy for the disease, presented by Dr. Donna J. Cross, a research associate professor in the Department of Radiology at the University of Utah; long-term care and asset protection by attorney Eric B. Barnes, CEO of The Elder Care Law Firm in Kaysville; and the many manifestations of frontotemporal dementia by Dr. Christine J. Cliatt Brown, a Behavioral Neurologist and Assistant Professor in the Division of Cognitive Neurology at the University of Utah. She specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of various types of dementia such as FTD, dementia with Lewy bodies and Alzheimer’s.

Registration and more information is available online at www.alzfdn.org/tour. The AFA also offers a free seven-day-a-week hotline at 866-232-8484, texting at 646-586-5283, as well as web chatting at www.alzfdn.org. The web chat and text message features are available in more than 90 languages. λ