Breaking the news in a rapidly progressive dementia — CASC communication station

You are the consultation-liaison psychiatrist. Mrs A is the wife of a 63-year-old man admitted ten weeks after the onset of rapid cognitive decline, now with ataxia and myoclonus. A junior doctor told her yesterday that the CSF result 'means Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease'. She has since read about the condition online and is frightened, angry, and asking whether she and their two adult children are at risk. The MRI has now been repeated with diffusion-weighted sequences and shows cortical and striatal restricted diffusion; RT-QuIC is pending. Meet her, correct the misinformation without undermining the team, and agree the next steps.