We had an interview with Adriana McCollum who is a part of Alzheimer’s San Diego. She is the Director of Social Programs & Volunteers.
Q1: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Adriana: It started way back when I was in graduate school. I did a master’s degree in Medical Anthropology. It’s like Public Health. It was in England. I was in a program and expected to do a Ph.D., but I felt it wasn’t the best for me. So, I left after my master’s. Then I moved back to the States. I looked for a job in animal welfare because I love animals, it’s a passion of mine. Then, I got a job working as a volunteer coordinator for the Humane Society in Oceanside. Then, after a series of positions as volunteer coordinator, volunteer manager, and volunteer director for animal welfare organizations, the last one being Project Wildlife, I felt I wanted to transition out of this and got back to what I was initially interested in, in terms of my studies. The job at Alzheimer’s San Diego became available. Back then, it was to create the Alzheimer’s companion program. I was hired to create the program. It was great for me because it was a combination of my education and my interest in the public health sphere, but also working with volunteers and creating programs. It was a good fit. It has been over eight years now. It has been a joy working with Alzheimer’s’ San Diego.
Q2: What do you do at Alzheimer’s’ San Diego?
Adriana: My title is Director of Social Programs & Volunteers. So, I oversee the general volunteer program. I have created programs that I oversee now. One of them is the Alzheimer’s Companions, where volunteers go to the home to spend time with clients living with dementia, take care of the clients, and allow the care partners to get a break. VITALZ is the program I created in the first year of the pandemic when we were all at home. It is a phone-based support program. Volunteers call clients who live alone, who have Alzheimer’s Disease, to check on them, provide companionship and socialization, and give reminders. The other social programs I oversee are social activities. These are music therapy, adapted fitness, and outings around the county. My job is to oversee all the programs and all the volunteers to make sure the program keeps growing and moving, identifying new programs that might fit the organization or new projects and programs that can be folded into the existing programs.
Q3: What keeps you going?
Adriana: There are probably too many stories to even pick the best one. I think there are two things. One is having an impact on families, knowing that I am helping them whether providing volunteers to provide support, or creating activities they come to enjoy. They get to have moments to connect with others, and not have to worry about caregiving responsibilities. The other thing is providing a meaningful experience for volunteers. I get to help, learn and grow. A lot of times, I am writing letters of recommendation for students who were going to colleges, graduate schools, and medical schools. It is nice to be here for people and to help them. They did give to us and I give back to them. On that note, one of my favorite volunteer stories is about combining everything. The volunteer named Perry was the companion volunteer for several years and he became very close to this family. He applied to medical school and I wrote a letter. I don’t think I did much, maybe like five percent. Mostly it was all his work. But it was nice to be able to fill it out and help. He got accepted into medical school where he had a white coat ceremony. The family was there with him. The family he volunteered for because they became so important to each other. That was just beautiful. They are still close even though the client has passed away. He is still close to his care partner. It has been a lifelong friendship. I think that really sums up my role. I get to work with the volunteers and families and bring them together. It’s wonderful.
Q4: What is your work day like? How many hours a week do you work?
Adriana: It varies. I would say, right now, it is probably around forty. There are times I work more. I work from home now. I moved to Wisconsin, so I don’t go to the office at all, except once or twice a year. So my days are a little different than they used to be. Also, because I am two hours ahead, so, a lot of times I can choose to start my day, like early morning time for me at 8:30 am or a little bit later, like the starting time in California, and adjust the time for how long I work. It is kind of flexible, which is great. Mostly, I am in front of the computer now. Before, I used to do a lot of facilitating for matching visits and leading activities. I have all the computer time now, which is not as fun, not as rewarding. But I am still making a difference, and getting connected with people.
Q5: What growth do you wish to see within Alzheimer’s San Diego itself?
Adriana: I think the most important area for growth right now is diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. We are making a lot of efforts now, and we have a long way to go. We are trying to get our materials translated into the threshold languages, and trying to reach out to communities. We have a small staff. Our strongest area now is for the Spanish-speaking community because we have a number of Spanish-speaking staff. We are just starting to enroll those communities. But there are a lot of other people. There is the Vietnamese and the Tagalog community. There are a lot of other language communities we need to reach out to. Accessibility is the area we need to work on, making things as accessible to people as possible. That is the main area of growth we should be focusing on, aside from raising money and getting more staff to do more things.
Q6: Can you name one of your favorite nonprofit websites besides Alzheimer’s San Diego and explain why?
Adriana: As I told you, I love animals. So this is always the one I would go to make me cheerful and happy. The Sanctuary: Best Friends Animal (https://bestfriends.org/). It’s in Utah. That is the one that makes me happy because it is very cheerful, positive, and upbeat. Even though we serve people living with Alzheimer’s, which is a horrible disease, we are trying to do the same thing: upbeat and cheerful colors, make people feel like they are welcome and it is a safe place to go. That is how I feel about the best friends’ website.
Q7: What do you think the community could do to make it easier for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementia? How could they work to make health care and/or home care more accessible, available, and affordable to individuals with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia?
Adriana: There are strides being made to make communities “dementia friendly”, initiatives to make our communities truly dementia friendly where somebody is accessible to people who have dementia. People are knowledgeable that is a behavioral expression when someone does something, they can identify what it is, and not think someone is being weird or mean. They need to understand what is going on. They identify signs of people living with dementia. There is a customer at the bank and they withdraw that doesn’t make sense anymore. They are not keeping their normal kind of thinking. So having staff, in all facets and areas of our community who work with us are aware and help people living with dementia will make it easier for people with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementia.
I feel making health care and home care more accessible is a big question. In general, the community has to get over the stigma of Alzheimer’s being a bad thing or embarrassing thinking. It is dependent on money and energy being driven into research, bills, and a government that would enhance the living of people who have dementia. People need to care about the disease, not be afraid of it. Dementia and Alzheimer’s awareness is the first step. People need to know what it is, understand it and know it’s a health crisis that people need to pay attention to.
Q8: What would you say is most important in helping individuals in the community cope with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementia?
Adriana: Driven from what is realistic now is making people aware of organizations like Alzheimer’s San Diego. We do everything for free. We are just here to help, whether it is providing education, one on one guidance to a client or a care partner having an issue, information referrals, and support groups. I think just having the support and care of an organization and knowing what they are doing is critical. That is the difference between living well with the disease and not living well with it.
Q9: Thinking about the future, how concerned are you about Alzheimer’s disease or related dementia in the coming years? What are the contributing factors to any future concerns about Alzheimer’s disease or related dementia? Is there anything you think the community could be doing now to plan for future Alzheimer’s disease or related dementia?
Adriana: It is definitely a concern. Have you heard the expression of the Silver Tsunami where you have silver relating to older adults with silver hair? This is where the baby boomer generation reaches the risk factor age range. So, there is going to be a huge number of people who are potentially going to develop Alzheimer’s disease soon. It is going to be more than the past generations. That is a big concern. There is no effective treatment for the disease. There are a couple of drugs that maybe keep Alzheimer’s in place for a year or two for some people where it doesn’t progress. Nothing modifies the disease. The drugs don’t work for everybody. So I feel like what the community could do now in terms of what is actually realistic is donating money to Alzheimer’s research, and the second obstacle to finding a cure is having clinical trial participants. Having communities living with dementia to help people, participating in clinical trials is critical in helping researchers to get the data to learn and understand to be able to potentially develop drugs to treat Alzheimer’s.
Q9: what has been your biggest mistake if you don’t mind sharing
Adriana: Well, thinking about that, I don’t know if there is one glaring big thing. It’s not really a mistake, but I feel like it is one of those crossroad moments where I have gone to a different way, and my life will be very different. Thinking about it a lot and I am very happy being where I am, but I had the opportunity to become an editor of a science journal in my twenties. Writing and reading is also a passion of mine. So, I just kind of wonder if I have done that, where will I be now. I wonder what kind of carrier I would have. I am quite happy where I am. I know it is not quite what you are asking. But I don’t think there has been a fatal mistake I have made that I am aware of. I make mistakes all the time. There is always thing like phrasing something in the wrong way to a person. There are things that happen all the time. But there is one moment I would wonder what things will be going if I have gone down that road.
Q10: What is your best piece of advice for students who want to fight for dementia or other mental health disorders in their communities?
Adriana: The number one thing is awareness, Alzheimer’s awareness, making people care about the disease. I think I am a great example. Before I started working at Alzheimer’s San Diego, I didn’t know Alzheimer’s was fatal. I didn’t know it was a disease some younger people could get. I was just thinking it was just memory loss. I have my master’s degree from Oxford and I went to UCSD for my undergrad. I feel like I should have known this and I don’t. I understand people not knowing about the disease. If it doesn’t touch their lives, they have no reason to know it. So I think just making people aware of it, understand it, and know that it will probably impact their lives at some point to their families or themselves. That’s where we will help drive down stigma, drive up donations, and drive up clinical trial participation.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
