DSAW Webinar Series Presents:

Aging with Down Syndrome & Tips for Promoting Cognitive Brain Health at Every Age

Sponsored by the Marjorie Christiansen Foundation

This webinar will discuss common issues encountered during aging with Down syndrome. There will be a focus on promoting brain health in persons with Down syndrome.

The webinar will include interactive, evidence-based tips and a worksheet for care partners and individuals to use at home and share with their healthcare providers. The worksheet is based on the 4Ms of Age-Friendly Care framework.

Dr. Donna Marie Fick

Dr. Fick is the Elouise Ross Eberly Endowed Professor of the Ross & Carol Nese College of Nursing at The Pennsylvania State University, and Director of the Tressa Nese and Helen Diskevich Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence. Dr. Fick is nationally and internationally recognized as a leading expert in geriatric care and research and is best known for her work on delirium superimposed on dementia (DSD) and ultra-brief delirium detection at the bedside. Along with her team, she has transformed the way clinicians approach delirium and DSD in the hospital setting.  Their tools, the UB-2 and UB-CAM, are used in health systems across the world. She is a member of the interdisciplinary panel for the American Geriatrics Society Beers Criteria for inappropriate medication use in older adults, the American Geriatrics Society Board, and the National Academy of Science Forum on Aging, Disability and Independence.  She also serves as a faculty and advisory member on Creating an Age Friendly Health System Initiative with the John A. Hartford Foundation and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and the Revisiting the Teaching Nursing Home Project.  Dr. Fick has completed as PI & MPI two R01 NIH funded randomized intervention trials on delirium and delirium superimposed on dementia. She is currently in the final year of an RO1 to test the cost of a rapid delirium screen she co-developed as a two-step detection process (UB-CAM). Dr. Fick widely disseminates her work through over 150 publications, national media coverage, and presentations. She has been Editor of the Journal of Gerontological Nursing since 2011 and is board certified as a Gerontological Clinical Nurse Specialist through 2024.  Her goal in her research and service is to improve the care of older adults, persons with disabilities, and their care partners. She lives in rural PA near her three adult children and enjoys gardening and trail running in the mountains.