Healthy Aging Clinic

The SLU Health Aging Clinic is a service provided by the Medical Family Therapy Program at Saint Louis University.

A group of seniors interacting with each other at the Aging and Memory Clinic

Mission

The SLU Health Aging Clinic is a multidisciplinary clinic that offers family-centered services to patients and families who have dementia and older adult issues. We take a holistic and biopsychosocial approach to aging, where we see the health and well-being of older adults as being connected to many areas of their lives. Our care also extends to all areas and regions of St. Louis and surrounding areas, helping provide services to individuals and families who otherwise cannot afford care.

Staff

Max Zubatsky, Ph.D., director
Marla Berg-Weger, Ph.D., faculty
Allison Gibson, Ph.D., faculty
Jin Cho, Ph.D., faculty
Wenjin Wang, clinical coordinator
Kiara Hill, facilitator
Payton Adams, facilitator
Rickeah Henderson, facilitator
Rachel Livingston, facilitator
Jen Lauck, facilitator

Initiatives

Clinical Services

Cognitive Stimulation Therapy: Cognitive Stimulation Therapy is an evidence-based intervention to help improve cognition for individuals with mild to moderate dementia. The group meets twice per week for 14 weeks. The goal is for participants to help engage with one another in a group setting while reminiscing about different memories to help improve cognition and mood.
Circle of Friends: Circle of Friends is a group intervention that originated in Finland to connect older adults who are lonely and socially isolated. SLU has adapted these groups to on telehealth, where older adults can help connect around common interests and topics to reduce isolation. The intervention covers three main topics: exercise and strength, common hobbies, and therapeutic writing.
Caregiver Process Groups: The clinic offers caregiver process groups for spouses or children caring for a loved one with dementia. These groups are not psychotherapy, but are targeted to help participants process topics, ideas and concerns surrounding caregiving. Each group is $5 per session. Times may vary on when the groups will meet during the week.
SLU Mobile Van: Members from the SLU Health Aging clinic help provide community services both behavioral health and interdisciplinary half day clinics. Organizations and sites can request these community screenings, which normally take place on Fridays from 10am-1pm. If you would like to coordinate a half day clinic to help serve your individuals and residents, please email memoryclinic@health.slu.edu.

Research

Grant Funding: The Memory Clinic has several services that are tied to research and grants. We provide services and collect data on the following grants over the past year:

HRSA Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program Grant
HRSA Primary Care Enhancement and Training Grant
Lutheran Foundation Grant
St. Louis Community Foundation Grant (COVID-19 Rapid Response Grant)
Regional Health Commission COVID Response Grant for Loneliness and Social Isolation

Publications and Presentations

Faculty and students publish articles from both data from clinical services and other areas of research.

Selected Publications

Zubatsky, M., Berg鈥怶eger, M., & Morley, J. (2020). Using Telehealth Groups to Combat Loneliness in Older Adults through COVID鈥�19. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Berg-Weger, M., & Morley, J. E. (2020). Loneliness and social isolation in older adults during the Covid-19 pandemic: Implications for gerontological social work.

Stewart, D. B., Berg-Weger, M., Tebb, S., Sakamoto, M., Roselle, K., Downing, L., ... & Hayden, D. (2017). Making a difference: A study of cognitive stimulation therapy for persons with dementia. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 60(4), 300-312.

Zubatsky, M., Aragon-Prada, M., Muse, F., Rainey, P., & Martin, R. (2016). Navigating Without a Roadmap: Challenges of Early Alzheimer鈥檚 Caregivers With Their Health Care Team. Global qualitative nursing research, 3, 2333393616673465.

Berg-Weger, M., Tebb, S., Henderson-Kalb, J., Zubatsky, M., Lundy, J., & Hayden, D. (2015). Cognitive stimulation therapy: A tool for your practice with persons with dementia?. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 16(9), 795-796.

Presentations

The Memory Clinic has presented at several local and national conferences on CST, Circle of Friends, caregiver well-being and other geriatric topics:

IAGG World Congress (July 2017)
International CST Conference in St. Louis (June 2019)
Gerontological Society of America Annual Conference (November 2019)
National Council on Family Relations (November 2020)

Training for Caregivers

Caregiver Speaker鈥檚 Series: The speaker鈥檚 series is a way for both family and professional caregivers to hear topics from professionals working in the memory and aging field. These talks cover a variety of areas such as signs of dementia, power of attorney, driving and dementia, self-care for caregivers and navigating the healthcare system. These talks are free and are offered on Zoom. To get on the speaker鈥檚 series list, please contact the Memory Clinic at memoryclinic@health.slu.edu.
Past Caregiver Speaker's Series Talks (PDFs):
鈥淧ay it Forward鈥�: This is an exciting initiative where caregivers can produce a 5-10 minute narrative of their caregiving experiences of a loved one. The goal is for caregivers to provide their own narrative story of being a caregiver and provide information for others to consider. This is a person-centered approach to care, where the community helps educate one another about ideas and strategies that help people cope with their loved one鈥檚 health issues.

Medical Student and Resident Training

One of the novel areas of training in the Memory Clinic is having residents and students shadow and observe different services and sessions. We have medical students along with residents from family medicine, internal medicine, geriatrics and psychiatry who gain more geriatrics experience during their shadowing of the Memory Clinic.

Webinars and Videos

(for Professionals)

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