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Some Latinos Not Comfortable Talking About Alzheimer's And Not Able To Access Information In Spanish

Talking about Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias is tough. But for some Spanish speaking families, the conversation doesn’t even happen. 

That’s because many Spanish-speakers are not comfortable talking about dementia, according to Berta Carvajal who is with ASU’s College of Nursing and the founder of the Promotores HOPE Network. Promotores are community health workers.

Another big issue, she says, is access to materials.

"We’re really weak in providing bilingual hotlines, bilingual materials, you know, bilingual services," Carvajal said.

Latinos are one and a half times more likely that non-Latino whites to get Alzheimer’s disease.

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KJZZ senior field correspondent Kathy Ritchie has 20 years of experience reporting and writing stories for national and local media outlets — nearly a decade of it has been spent in public media.