By Joanna Clay
On a recent Friday, roughly 100 African-American seniors packed into a room at the Foundation Center in South Los Angeles.
As the music queued and Rose Monteiro came to the stage, people sipped their coffee and had their notepads and pens ready.
Monteiro sat at on a high stool at the end of a high-top table, coffee mugs and a potted flower in front of her. It was set up more like the set of The View than an academic lecture — and that’s the point.
Monteiro, a lifelong social worker, was “hosting,” along with “guests” Karen Lincoln, an associate professor with the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, and Michael Harrington, a USC adjunct neurology professor.
African-Americans have the highest rate of Alzheimer’s and dementia, Lincoln told the group to audible gasps, outpacing whites by 2-3 times. “We have the highest burden,” she said.
The “talk show” is part of a USC study on how to reach African-American seniors and better educate them on the brain diseases. The study also encourages seniors to take part in clinical trials, in which African-Americans are woefully underrepresented.
“Most of what we know about the disease … is based on people who don’t look like us,” Lincoln said.