The presentation on August 15 to the Castle Country Business Expansion and Retention general board will concern dementia, its affects on individuals and the costs that are associated with it to business and private persons. The speaker will be Shawna Horrocks who is employed by the Southeastern Utah Association of Local Governments.

Horrocks has been a nurse for 18 years. She worked at Castleview Hospital as a Labor and Delivery nurse until 2012 when she went to work for SEUALG. She completed a Master’s Degree in Administrative Nursing in 2014. Today she works as the Director of Aging as well as nurse case manager for Aging Waiver, New Choice Waiver, Family Care Giver Support Program, Alternative Program, and Veteran Directed Home and Community Based Service Program. She is a certified Dementia Dialogue Instructor and Dementia Live Instructor.

Dementia costs the economy of the United States billions of dollars each year. Understanding what it is like to have the disease and how it affects people will is part of her presentation through a process known as Dementia Live. It is a high impact, dementia simulation experience that immerses participants into life with dementia, resulting in a deeper understanding of what it’s like to live with cognitive impairment and sensory change.

BEAR general board meetings are held every other Thursday throughout the year (barring holidays) and are open to the public. They are held at the Jennifer Leavitt Student Center Alumni Room on the USU Eastern Campus in Price. The public is welcome to attend.

The meeting will begin at 8 a.m. and will end by 9 a.m.

Light refreshments will be served.