Dementia patients “often forget where they are and that they are not in their home,” says Maureen Dale, MD, in Modern Health Care. “When clinicians are coming in and out of their room to do their job, it can be alarming.” Busby-Whitehead emphasizes that after the training, many staff members feel more confident speaking with patients and reorienting them.

The opening of UNC Hospital’s Hillsborough Campus in 2015 provided a unique opportunity for medicine services to expand. Ron Falk, MD, chair of the department of medicine, envisioned a service that could be accessible and comfortable to the geriatric population, combining specialized geriatric care with all of the amenities at UNC Hospital’s new Hillsborough Campus.

(Republished from the UNC Health Care and UNC School of Medicine Newsroom) Governor Cooper proclaimed Sept. 26, 2019, as ‘Dementia Friendly Hospitals Day’ in North Carolina. UNC Health Care marked this occasion by celebrating the expansion of its special training program aimed at providing better care for patients with Alzheimer’s and related dementias.

Maureen Dale, MD, was interviewed on WCHL radio, discussing UNC’s Dementia Friendly Hospitals Initiative and Governor Roy Cooper’s “Dementia Friendly Hospitals Day” proclamation, recognized Thursday, September 26 as the first year of dementia-friendly training at the Hillsborough campus.

The Dementia Friendly Hospital Initiative will reach a total of 3,900 employees in four hospitals across North Carolina to raise awareness of how patients with dementia experience care and to meet their unique needs with strategic and compassionate treatment. Read more

As the state’s first geriatrics-certified hospital, UNC Medical Center’s Hillsborough Hospital continuously improves elder care. The hospital is the first in North Carolina to receive Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation (GEDA). Read more

The Duke Endowment funded UNC’s Center for Aging and Health to train four hospitals in best practices of “dementia-friendly” patient care. The Dementia-Friendly Hospital Initiative (DFHI) will transform the hospital experience for patients with dementia. Read more