Recent Alzheimer’s advancements leave Black and Latino patients behind

Althea Jordan sits in her white recliner while her physical therapist, Danielle Heltzel, kneels on the floor in front of her to go through a series of exercises to help move her legs. “Did I ask if your knees hurt? Are they sore? They ache?” Heltzel asked. Jordan mumbles quietly affirming some leg pain. She’s in the late stages of Alzheimer’s Disease, but the 73-year-old is also recovering from a recent virus, making her quieter than usual. Jordan is African American. She lives in a townhouse in suburban Des Moines with her son and her daughter-in-law, Milinda Andrews, who is her full-time caregiver. Andrews was the first one to notice her mother-in-law was starting to have memory issues when she went to pick her up one day from the bus stop more than a decade ago. “I drove up to pick her up and I saw her waiting, and she didn’t recognize me right away. It was just seconds, but it was a blank couple seconds,” she said. Jordan’s symptoms progressed from there. She started mixing up her medications. Her children started needing to go to her independent living facility more to check on her. Eventually, Jordan forgot to go...