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A 2007 graduate of the Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy has been named Dementia Care Professional of the Year by the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America.

A 2007 graduate of the Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy has been named Dementia Care Professional of the Year by the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America.

In 2007, Heather McKay graduated from the Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy with her master’s degree. Recently, the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America named her the 2016 Dementia Care Professional of the Year.

McKay is a shining graduate of the occupational therapy program. With a strong focus on the human experience, McKay has developed a dementia care program at Hospice and Palliative Care of Alamance-Caswell, located in Burlington, North Carolina. The program’s comprehensive approach offers services to not only those living with the disease, but their caregivers, and has taken off ten-fold since its inception. In the program’s first year, McKay provided more than 1,000 hours of community education has now expanded to extending one-on-one consultations to family caregivers. Her approachable nature and commitment to developing a shared understanding of dementia between staff and families has made the program’s services sought-after in her rural community.

Read more about McKay here.