When Andrea Lucas started noticing memory slips three years ago, she didn’t expect them to cost her career and her access to her own bank account. At 61, she was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment and early-onset dementia, a condition that affects hundreds of thousands of people in Georgia alone. Instead of stepping back, she stepped into Emory’s Cognitive Empowerment Program, a six-month research and therapeutic effort built around five areas: physical exercise, cognitive training, independence skills, coping strategies, and the MIND diet.
Program director Amy Rodriguez says the early outcomes are encouraging. Within a year of participation, people’s cognition and functioning are stable or improving. That matters for families across the Suncoast, where retirees and snowbirds make up so much of our community and where dementia care resources are always in demand.
Lucas’s message is direct: a diagnosis is not the end of life, and there is a lot of life to be had. If you’ve noticed memory changes in yourself or someone you love, the first step is a conversation with a doctor, followed by questions about programs and support. Have you had that conversation with your family yet?
