Symmetries exist between palliative care and the services designed to be delivered through the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience (GUIDE) program.
In July, Andwell Health Partners in Maine began participating in GUIDE. Andwell Chief Medical Officer Dr. Vance Brown said he knew his organization had signed up for a winning program. Two years ago, a nurse in Andwell’s four-year-old nurse practitioner program in palliative care was working on an academic project.
“She was like, ‘I don’t understand how come there’s no interwoven palliative care (in the GUIDE program), and she actually did her academic project on that and talked about the importance of interweaving palliative care into the GUIDE program,” Brown said.
Andwell’s Chief Clinical Officer, Carol Weir, a registered nurse, explained that GUIDE, at its most fundamental, is designed to help dementia patients, their families, and caregivers navigate the holistic life of someone suffering dementia.
“Unfortunately, here in the United States, navigating a diagnosis like dementia/Alzheimer’s/ and some other diseases that can cause the issues that you have with dementia, it’s really fragmented and difficult for families to navigate, never mind the patient,” Weir said.