Nov. 26, 2025

Carol Zernial’s mother’s words still ring in her ears: ‘I wish I could talk to somebody else like me, and we could help each other.’

“It felt like nobody understood what she was going through,” Carol said. “It’s terrifying to realize you’re losing your mind and it’s going away forever.”

Like the more than 7 million Americans today, Carol’s mother had Alzheimer’s disease – a disease that accounts for 60 to 80% of all dementia cases in the United States.

Carol is the executive director of the WellMed Charitable Foundation (WCF), where she oversees several initiatives that support caregivers throughout the country. The gerontologist is also a past chair of the National Council on Aging.

But even she was at a loss when it came to her mother’s illness – given the lack of caregiver services available.

“Even those of us in the business need good information about what’s going on with our loved one,” she said.

A new initiative is improving dementia care – from earlier diagnoses in the primary care clinics to improved outreach efforts to those who care for dementia patients.

In July, all clinics in the South region began screenings for patients who are 65 and older as part of their annual visit. The goal is to catch dementia at its earliest stages and enter that information into the patient’s electronic medical records.

Clinicians will also be able to include information about the patient’s primary caregiver – information that, with the caregiver’s consent, is then passed on to the WCF’s Caregiver SOS program, which provides free caregiver services by certified dementia specialists.

A timely dementia diagnosis enables the clinician to start intervention programs that can potentially slow the progression of the disease. Meanwhile, early outreach to the caregiver is key to the health, finances and legal issues impacting them.

“Dementia care means you have to take care of the caregiver,” Carol said. “A caregiver who is feeling overwhelmed or stressed out may not do the best job they can taking care of the patient.”

That job includes helping the patient manage other health conditions they have.

“Medical costs are higher for the most common conditions if you overlay dementia,” she continued. “Most of those costs are related to emergency room visits and hospitalizations. By educating caregivers, we can help to minimize those visits.”

The initiative is part of a larger Optum project to address some of the most common chronic conditions affecting older adults, such as dementia and heart failure, according to WellMed Chief Medical Officer Dr. Barbara Allen.

“If we can screen for and diagnose conditions earlier, we can start treatment earlier,” Dr. Allen said.

For dementia care, WellMed has the benefit of the Caregiver SOS program, which WCF founded in 2010.

“Caregiver SOS is really about helping to educate our caregivers on how to best support the patient, but also how to support themselves,” said Dr. Allen, whose father was recently diagnosed with dementia.

While Dr. Allen is based in Texas her immediate family lives in Indiana.

“Watching my sister and my mother navigate the care system with my father has been very frustrating,” she said.

As of Oct. 31, WellMed clinicians have screened 65,739 patients, a percentage of whom have been diagnosed with dementia, Carol said.

Over time, those numbers will grow, as more clinicians get involved with the program.

Given the 1.2 million patients the South region currently serves, there is the potential for this program to have a profound impact over time.

“To have that many patients actually screened and diagnosed is a game changer,” Carol said.