EMS Health Literacy Pilot Project Works to Help Dementia Patients

Monday, Apr 04, 2022

A pilot project put together by The University of Texas at Arlington College of Nursing and Health Innovation, The University of North Texas Health Science Center, Alzheimer’s Association, and MedStar Mobile Healthcare sought to help EMS providers better identify and treat patients who could be suffering from dementia. Recently, the project and its success made the cover of EMSWorld.com.

The project, a series of health literacy trainings conducted in Fort Worth for MedStar EMS providers, targeted how they work with dementia patients and their caregivers. Erin Carlson, associate clinical professor and the director of the graduate public health program in the Department of Kinesiology assisted in creating the trainings and also spearheaded the efforts to evaluate them.

“What we learned in speaking with EMS providers is that they get these calls but they don’t have special training on patients with dementia,” said Dr. Carlson. “Our four entities came together to see what we could do from a health literacy perspective to help providers speak to patients in a way the patient will understand.”

Carlson and then undergraduate Bachelor of Science in public health student assistant Kayla Demiar created survey instruments to assess the knowledge increase of providers who received the training. The health literacy trainings were found to be highly beneficial and there was a significant increase in knowledge. Demiar has since graduated and entered the department’s Master of Public Health program.

“This work was novel in that we were training emergency medical providers. Usually, health literacy concentrates on training physicians. For this group, there is very little work on health literacy to communicate with caregivers and patients with dementia,” said Carlson.

While the study does not have long-term data, they did assess EMS practice changes initially following the trainings and found a 500% increase in referrals to community dementia services for caregiver support. The group also found that the overwhelming majority of participants strongly agreed that it was helpful to learn the signs of dementia, as well as how and when to administer the dementia screening tools. Providers continued to use the training tools even four months after the training was conducted.

“We really believe in this project. I felt compelled to be involved because my father has dementia and I know what that is like to be in that caregiving role. I have a personal passion for this – it was definitely a passion project of mine. It was also mutually beneficial for everyone involved to do this pilot project,” said Carlson. 

This project also provided an excellent way to introduce students to research and public health in the community.

“Communication and understanding of a health diagnosis can be a large barrier to receiving proper treatment. Health literacy is the communication link between health care workers and patients. The research greatly emphasized the importance of identifying those who may need assistance in asking questions to facilitate dementia interventions with their loved ones. Identifying where health barriers exist and developing steps towards breaking them is exactly why I went on for an MPH degree. I wanted to develop the skills and training needed to impede barriers to optimal health outcomes,” said Demiar.

“Kayla has been a great ambassador for the techniques we can apply to help improve health in the community in ways other than being a practitioner. She is currently working with nurses and health care providers in a public health capacity,” said Carlson.