Advocate for Alzheimer’s

    Do you ask yourself “What can I do to help find a cure for Alzheimer’s?” One easy way is to become an advocate. When you sign up at alz.org they will e-mail you when a bill is before congress so you can easily e-mail your representatives and encourage them to support funding Alzheimer’s research. Here are the facts from the just released 2014 statistics:

• This year, America will spend $226 billion caring for the over 5 million people with Alzheimer’s disease, including $153 billion by Medicare and Medicaid. If nothing changes, in 2050, America will have over 16 million people with Alzheimer’s and costs will increase to over $1 trillion.
• Nearly 1 in every 5 Medicare dollars is currently spent on someone with Alzheimer’s. That will increase to nearly 1 in every 3 dollars in 2050.
• If the federal government invests what scientists say is needed to develop a treatment by 2025, the federal government will recoup that investment in less than three years -- a great rate of return.

---

    These are the facts, but even more important is the impact a cure will have on the millions of people diagnosed with AD and their caregivers. We know what a devastating illness this can be as one loses their abilities to function when they lose their memory. We observe the deterioration as our loved forgets how to remember ideas, then people, then how to prepare a meal, get dressed, how to walk and talk, and finally how to swallow nourishment. 
    A group of nearly 900 advocates will be calling on their elected representatives later this month, on March 25, 2015. I have been invited to attend by the Alzheimer’s Association and to work to get representatives to join the Alzheimer’s Task Force, which currently has 180 members from both parties and from both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Task Force is active in securing funding for Alzheimer’s research and in raising the awareness of Alzheimer’s disease.
    Please consider joining me in Washington D.C. Registration is still open.The Association will train you in the two days before we meet with our representatives so you will know exactly how to proceed.
    If that’s not feasible for you, do sign up and e-mail your representatives, especially between now and March 25, to let them know youare counting on them to help. We need to impress on them the immediacy of this need to find a cause and cure. Thank you for stepping up and being counted in this endeavor.