William A. Vega, the executive director of the Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging at the USC School of Social Work, delivered the opening plenary lecture at the Many Faces of Dementia conference at the USC Davidson Conference Center on March 18.

The event was sponsored by the USC Memory and Aging Center, the USC College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, the USC Keck School of Medicine - Office of Continuing Medical Education, the USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging, the Los Angeles Caregiver Resource Center, and the Alzheimer's Association - California Southland Chapter.

The one-day conference brought together medical professionals, health care providers, clinical researchers and caregivers in the greater Los Angeles area who provide help for individuals with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.

Vega knows about the challenges faced by dementia caregivers from his mother-in-law. He related the story about his mother-in-law who was hospitalized after collapsing out of sheer exhaustion from caring for her husband with dementia. During her hospital stay, she told Vega that she enjoyed being away from home because it provided a reprieve from caregiving.

"It is so critical to prepare families in advance for the challenge," Vega said. "People walk into the situation naïve about what you need to do."

He said that caregivers are at high risk of depression and chronic diseases due to the stresses of caregiving.

The focus of this year's conference was on health disparities in dementia diagnosis and care.

Vega took time to address the specific issues facing Latinos with dementia and their caregivers. He said the rate of dementia in Latinos is higher than the general population, and Latino families often fail to seek treatment from physicians who are dementia specialists. Instead, they seek advice and information from primary care physicians who possess limited knowledge about cognitive impairment.

"These doctors are not very good at explaining these things," Vega said. "They're uninformative and uninformed."

He added that there is a lack of linguistically competent medical staff and translators in California today. Statistics show that a mere 5% of California's physicians are Latino—some of whom do not even speak fluent Spanish. This dearth of Latino doctors is not without significance in a state where Latinos comprise 38% of the population.

"We simply don't have enough Latino, Spanish-speaking physicians," Vega said.

An elected member of the Institute of Medicine, Vega is one of the nation's leading experts on health disparities that affect aging ethnic minority populations.

The USC Roybal Institute, which he directs, is dedicated to translational research, policy advocacy and training that improves the health, mental health and care of older persons, particularly those from multiethnic backgrounds.