Alzheimer’s disease is a looming
threat to each of us and to our government. In fact, it is a triple threat.
Threat
#1: Soaring Prevalence. Every 67 seconds a person in the United States
develops Alzheimer’s. More than five million Americans currently are living
with Alzheimer’s. As the baby boomers age the prevalence of Alzheimer’s will
skyrocket. Left unchecked, we could be looking at 16 million people with the
disease by 2050. Don’t know about you, but that darn near scares the bejesus
out of me.
Threat
#2: Lack of Treatment. Alzheimer’s is the sixth leading cause of death in
the United States. It is the only disease in the top ten without an effective
treatment or a cure. We seem to be headed in the right direction with the
Alzheimer’s Accountability Act which means the research budget is scientist
driven. The goal is to move toward the National Alzheimer’s Plan with its goal
of finding an effective treatment or a cure by 2025. Some recent studies are
promising!
Threat
#3: Enormous Costs. Alzheimer’s has a reputation for being the most
expensive disease for a reason. It is! The cost to Medicaid is $37 billion and
Medicare is $113 billion, or one in five Medicare dollars. I can’t quite wrap
my mind around those staggering numbers. Families provide an estimated 17.7
billion hours of unpaid care. In 2014, the out of pocket expense to American
families to care for loved ones with Alzheimer’s was estimated to be $36
billion. Additional costs hit family budgets hard. Even with health insurance
and a division of assets that meant Medicaid picked up part of Jim’s nursing
home, the disease drained our resources. Jim’s Veteran’s check and social
security check went to the nursing home. The extras I bought for him cost much
more than the $25 a month allowance from his checks.
When faced with a threat, humans
have an instinct of either “flight” or “fight.” Which do you have? If you fall
into the “flight” camp, you just ignore the disease and figure that it isn’t
going to happen to you or someone you love. You don’t bother to do anything
about it. Maybe not because you don’t care, but you just don’t have time, or
money, or motivation.
If you are like me, you plan to “fight”
with all you have. You walk the walk and talk the talk. You participate in Walk
to End Alzheimer’s, or at least support someone who does, and you become an advocate. You
spread the word and email a legislator from time to time. You become a "Voice" for
Alzheimer’s.
Last night I listened to an ambassador call, “Changing the
Trajectory of Alzheimer’s Disease.” The moderators mentioned three ways to help us move
the Alzheimer’s mission forward. They called them the three “F’s.”
First,
we need Fighters! These are the Champions who visit, email, call, and
generally pester their legislators about Alzheimer’s legislation. They are ambassadors,
board members, and volunteers who faithfully give their time and resources.
Second,
we need Faces. A personal story, a picture, or a person in front of a legislator
takes the abstract and makes it a reality! Whether you are visiting your state or
U.S. legislators, the most important thing you can bring as an advocate is your story
to make it personal and real. You need to condense the story to keep it on
point and brief, but tell it from the heart.
The
third part is to share the Facts. The facts are scary! The facts are
sobering. You don’t have to memorize the facts, but you need to share them. The
best way to lay out the facts is to verbalize a few key facts and leave a
handout behind with the details.
We have our work cut out for us if
we intend to neutralize the triple threat of Alzheimer’s and change the
trajectory of the disease. I hope you choose to join the fight.
Copyright © February 2015 by L.S.
Fisher
http://earlyonset.blogspot.com
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