Caregiver Teleconnection

Tam Cummings, PhD.
Tam Cummings, PhD, founded her company in 2009 with the mission to “Inspire, Educate, and Empower Dementia Caregivers.” Now her professional gerontology practice in the Texas Hill Country is recognized as one of the leading educators of dementia caregivers and program design for dementia care nationally. To date Dr. Cummings has • authored and published four books for dementia caregivers. • speaks in national podcasts for dementia caregivers. • trained more than 35,000 medical professionals, professional and family caregivers and community first responders nationally. • developed the Dementia Behavioral Assessment Tool (DBAT) for staging dementias based upon the behaviors displayed by the PWD. • developed a classification and staging tool for the behavioral, communication, and movement variations of the FTDs (Frontotemporal Dementias) – the only tool of its kind. • selected as the subject-matter-expert (SME) and program designer in a 2018 CMP Project awarded to the Texas State Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Cummings developed training for frontline staff to include clinical features of each major form of dementia, specific behaviors presented by different dementias, and correct approaches to ADL care for individual residents. • selected as the SME to develop the content for a 2016 CMP with the Texas Health Care Association to reduce the use of antipsychotic medications in SNFs by training professional and family caregivers to recognize the most common forms of dementia and the behaviors associated with each disease. Texas moved from 51st in antipsychotic usage to 14th nationally. Dr. Cummings attended Baylor University, Texas A&M University, and Concordia University. She holds degrees in journalism, social work, and gerontology.