Northern Arizona is a 'memory care desert.' Researchers hope to change that

Northern Arizona is considered a "memory care desert," at least according to the researchers who are studying ways to bring early detection and research opportunities to rural communities.

Megan McCoy is an assistant professor of social work at Northern Arizona University. She along with her two colleagues are looking at ways to support rural families and Native American individuals at risk of dementia.

"First, we're interested in really increasing the capacity of community-based organizations in northern Arizona to support brain health education and memory screening," she explains.

"Second, we are very much focused on building relationships with tribal communities to also be able to, again, strengthen capacity to provide brain health education and memory screening. The third arm is really understanding how modifiable factors in our daily lives impact memory and thinking."

So how things like sleep, exercise or social connections might impact memory and thinking.

McCoy says her team is using the term memory care desert to describe much of northern Arizona.

"And we've sort of started applying that terminology to how what we're seeing in terms of memory care in northern Arizona to capture things like family spacing, provider shortages, lengthy wait times, transportation issues and lack of respite care," McCoy said.

The study was recently accepted for publication as a scientific research paper in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.