HABIT Expands to Las Vegas!

The Mayo Clinic HABIT team is very excited announce that the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health will offer the Mayo Clinic HABIT program starting next month! They have been actively collaborating with the Mayo Clinic HABIT team for at least a year to bring Mayo Clinic’s HABIT Healthy Action to Benefit Independence and Thinking ® program to their patients living with Mild Cognitive Impairment. Thanks to generous donor support from the Hearst Foundation, the Cleveland Clinic team will launch their first HABIT session, in our adapted virtual format, on February 23rd, 2021. I’ll be joining their team virtually to support them in their first session. We are so proud that the HABIT program will be accessible to more individuals—this time in the Las Vegas/Nevada state area. If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment and you live in the Las Vegas area, I encourage you to contact the Las Vegas team at HABITProgram@ccf.org to see if you might be able to participate in the HABIT program there !Now I’d like to introduce you to their team. This is a very skilled group of psychologists and I'm excited to work with them!

Dr. Justin Miller is a board-certified neuropsychologist who has lead the effort to bring HABIT to their patients and will be the Director of their HABIT program. He is also Director of Neuropsychology at the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, which continues to grow under his leadership. He specializes in adult neuropsychology, geropsychology, and rehabilitation psychology. He completed his PhD at Wayne State University and completed his postdoctoral training at UCLA.  Dr. Miller and I have been having ongoing conversations about this collaboration for a least two years, so I’m excited to see this coming to fruition!

Dr. Miller is joined by Dr. Lucille (Lucy) Carriere, a health psychologist. Dr. Carriere completed her education at Auburn University and post-doctoral training at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. She is currently the Angie Ruvo Endowed Caregiving Chair due to her specialization in support for individuals and caregivers living with neurogenerative disorders and complex medical conditions.

The final leg of this amazing triad is Dr. Christina Wong, also a neuropsychologist. She completed her education at Wayne State University and her post-doctoral training at the VA San Diego before joining the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health. Like Dr. Miller, she has a focus on adult neuropsychology, most specifically in older adult populations.

Dr. Wong, Dr. Carriere, and Dr. Miller all spent time with the Mayo Clinic HABIT team in 2020, observing our program and sitting in on our sessions and classes with patients (with their permission!) to see us in action. All of this was virtual given COVID-19 safety precautions, but it worked really well! They’ve spent the end of 2020 and early 2021, developing their materials, setting their schedules, and screening potential patients for their first session. Drs. Wong and Carriere will share the hands-on delivery of the HABIT session, with each of them delivering cognitive rehabilitation training to couples, leading wellness health behavior change group discussions, providing coaching and homework assignments to develop a cognitive exercise plan, and leading separate support groups for the patient and their loved-one serving as their care partner. They will be joined by one of the Mayo Clinic Arizona team, certified yoga instructor Maria Caselli, who will provide the mindful movement component of the program. The Mayo Clinic HABIT team is very excited to partner with the Lou Ruvo Team!  Not only do we envision more robust access to the HABIT program for all those living with MCI, but we look forward to ongoing research collaboration to further develop the HABIT program as new information about brain health and MCI arises. Please join me in celebrating the expansion of HABIT beyond the geography of Mayo Clinic!  Drs. Wong, Carriere, and Miller—I look forward to joining you in your launch on February 23, 2021! I know it will be amazing!