Guthrie County Veterans Affairs Director Beth Watson is working on the state level to get some training approved.

Watson says that she’s been working with University of Northern Iowa Professor of Gerontology Dr. Elaine Eshbaugh to have a presentation and training on dementia for the Veterans Affairs District that Guthrie County is part of. She tells Raccoon Valley Radio why she wanted to do this.

“That’s my biggest task right now because I want to be able to engage with our community at large and have them better understand through us, through our tools, what dementia looks like, how early it starts.”

Watson mentions that Dr. Eshbaugh’s team also does free brain scans, so that individuals could get a baseline of where their brain functions are at, and then come in periodically afterwards to keep track of any changes. She adds that she is just waiting on approval from the state level to be able to bring in Dr. Eshbaugh.