State Updates
New Jersey must take the lead in developing comprehensive plans for the present and future crisis of Alzheimer's disease. The NJ Alzheimer’s Disease Study Commission will: provide an overview and framework of the impact of Alzheimer's disease in New Jersey; analyze all areas affected by Alzheimer's issues; identify existing services and service gaps; and propose legislation to help our legislators understand how the state can provide enhanced service to Alzheimer’s disease individuals and their families.
Please contact your legislator and ask him/her to add their support to this bill. Click here to find your legislator and take action! Inform public officials that Alzheimer’s disease affects loved ones, friends and neighbors. It places an enormous burden on family caregivers who must endure prolonged physical, emotional, and financial stress. Urge them to review this bill and commit to supporting this legislation. The bill numbers for this legislation are: (S125/A322).
Memory Walk and Advocacy
Memory Walk is the Alzheimer’s Association’s signature event and an ideal time to become an advocate and join in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. Leadership in this fight is needed now more than ever, and our elected officials, at the state and federal levels, must commit to fight Alzheimer’s disease today.
An advocate is someone who takes a political action in support of our cause. Anyone can become an advocate. You don’t have to be an expert in government affairs, just have the desire to share your story and have your voice heard by your elected officials. This year individuals who signed up as advocates asked their member(s) of Congress to commit to the Association’s top priorities- investing $2 billion in research, providing access to care and support services, and creating a national plan to solve the Alzheimer’s crisis. The Association will engage advocates year round in a variety of activities to progress the legislative agenda of the Association. Those who signed up will receive monthly federal updates, special legislative alerts, as well as advocacy communications from their local chapters. Be a part of Memory Walk today and sign up to become in an advocate!
This Memory Walk season, we successfully recruited 226 new advocates! We still need your voice, please become an advocate today!
Federal Updates
National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA) - Action Needed!!
Contact your member(s) of Congress and urge them to sign on to NAPA!
Ask your representative to cosponsor the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (S.3036 / H.R. 4689) that will establish a National Alzheimer’s Project Office and inter-agency Advisory Council responsible for creating a national plan to overcome the Alzheimer’s disease crisis. In 2050, up to 16 million Americans will have Alzheimer’s disease, creating an enormous strain on the health care system, families, and the federal budget.
Yet there is no plan on how to deal with this looming crisis. If enacted, the National Alzheimer’s Project Act will:
- Launch a campaign within the federal government to overcome Alzheimer’s disease.
- Establish an inter-agency Advisory Council to create a coordinated National Alzheimer’s Disease Plan.
- Comprehensively address the federal government’s efforts on Alzheimer’s research, care, institutional services, and home- and community-based programs.
- Accelerate the development of treatments that would prevent, halt or reverse the course of Alzheimer’s disease.
- Decrease health disparities by ensuring ethnic and racial populations at higher risk for Alzheimer’s receive much-needed care and services.
Find out if your member of Congress is a co-sponsor of NAPA. If not, ask your member of Congress to act now and support NAPA (S. 3036 / H.R. 4689).
Alzheimer’s Breakthrough Ride & World Alzheimer’s Day
On Sept. 21, World Alzheimer's Day, the riders of the Alzheimer’s Breakthrough ride collected more than 110,000 signatures for a petition asking Congress to make Alzheimer’s disease a national priority. On World Alzheimer’s Day, the participants cycled to Capitol Hill and presented the signatures for delivery to Congress. The presentation marked the culmination of a cross-country journey that began in San Francisco and involved more than 55 Alzheimer researchers cycling over 4,500 miles to raise awareness and support for the cause.
Simultaneously released on World Alzheimer’s Day, Alzheimer’s Disease International released a new report highlighting the soaring cost of dementia and the need for action by policy makers and governments across the globe. World Alzheimer Report 2010: The Global Economic Impact of Dementia findings include:
- Dementia is significantly affecting every health and social care system in the world.
- Dementia care costs around 1 percent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP).
- If dementia care were a country, it would be the world’s 18th largest economy (ranking between Turkey and Indonesia).
- By 2030, worldwide societal costs will increase by 85 percent (a very conservative estimate considering only increases in the number of people with dementia).
The Shriver Report™: A Woman’s Nation Takes on Alzheimer’s
First Lady of California Maria Shriver and the Alzheimer's Association released in October: The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Takes on Alzheimer's, the largest study ever conducted to look at the effect of Alzheimer's disease on American women as caregivers, people with the disease and advocates. The report states that women are the epicenter of the Alzheimer’s epidemic. There are nearly 10 million American women who either have Alzheimer’s disease or are caring for someone with the disease. Two-thirds of the people who have Alzheimer’s — 3.3 million — are women. Sixty percent of Alzheimer caregivers — 6.7 million — are women. There are nearly a third of women caregivers that rate the physical stress level of caregiving a 5 out of 5. The greatest fears women voice about getting Alzheimer's disease is that they will forget their loved ones, become a burden to their families and not be able to care for themselves.
The purpose of this report is to launch a national conversation about the far-reaching consequences of Alzheimer's disease in the United States today and in the future. As an advocate I urge you to share this report with your friends, family and neighbors. I urge you to contact your state and federal representatives and ask him/her to recognize Alzheimer’s as a public health crisis and take action now. Click here to find your state and federal representative.
For more information, please visit us at www.alz.org/nj.
Save the Date
The 2011 Alzheimer's Association Advocacy Forum will be held May 15-17, 2011, in Washington, D.C. The Alzheimer's Association Alzheimer's Action Summit/Forum offers the opportunity to learn about Alzheimer's disease, create dialogue about this important issue and train to deliver key policy messages to lawmakers.
Please stay tuned for more information about this in early 2011. If you have any questions about the Forum, please contact advocacy@alznj.org.
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