Clinical Resources

Our interdisciplinary Memory Clinic employs staff from the Departments of Neurology and of Psychiatry from the Medical School, the Department of Occupational Therapy in the Center for Allied Health Programs, the Department of Family Social Science at the University, and Eldercare Partners, a consortium of social service agencies in the Twin Cities. 

We work closely with our partner clinic, the GRECC (Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center) Dementia Clinic at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center.  Our process of Consensus Diagnosis assures that every patient’s case is discussed with all of the experts in our clinics, and promotes finding the most accurate and complete diagnosis.  Our state of the art clinical database allows us safely and securely to collect and examine information that helps us to understand better dementias, identify potential research subjects, and track a variety of research studies.  We hope that our database will lead to better research on interventions, including medication, their dosages, and the optimal windows of time to deliver treatment in the progression of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

A crucial distinction of our clinic is the Family Meeting.  After a patient has undergone a complete evaluation, the patient and family attend a Family Meeting with the doctor, the occupational therapist and the social worker to receive the diagnosis and prognosis and collaboratively establish a plan of action.  We feel the Family Meeting is a critical step in the process of addressing dementia.  Perhaps more than any other disorders, dementia affects the whole family.  The successful management of these illnesses requires the family to agree on the presence and severity of the problem, the needs of the patient and family, and the plan to make it work.

Our relationship with the Family Caregiving Center at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Family Social Science and Eldercare Partners aims to create a strong medical-psycho-social approach that bridges the medical diagnosis and treatment of dementia with the utilization of services that support patients and their families in managing dementia.  We believe that integrating the medical diagnosis and treatment with social and psychological education and support is the most effective way to address the growing needs of the rapidly increasing numbers of persons with dementia, their families, the health care system, and society.