America is facing a new kind of epidemic, one that will rattle our nation to the core over the next twenty-to-thirty years, unless we spend more money on research and treatment.  Dementias and Alzheimer’s Disease will cause for many dramatic changes in that we’ll need more facilities, better training and education, and a new generation of caregivers who are willing to risk their own health in caring for those with dementia.

Remember, those who care for a loved one with dementia will struggle with health and emotional distress for up to three years after the person they were caring for has passed away.  This is serious business, and we need to take a more serious look at what we can do to develop medications and even a preventative shot or series of treatments for this trend.  Here’s a snip from a story on the Caregiver’s Home Companion website.

As many as 10 million baby boomers will develop Alzheimer’s disease during their lifetime, making the incurable and fatal condition one of the biggest threats to this large and fast-aging segment of the US population, according to new research released by the Alzheimer’s Association.

Today, as many as 5.2 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s, which includes between 200,000-500,000 people under age 65 with young-onset Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias.

Experts predict by 2010, there will be almost a half million new cases of Alzheimer’s disease each year; and by 2050, there will be almost a million new cases each year. Eventually, the report says, the disease will strike one out of every eight baby boomers.

Alzheimer’s disease is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States and the fifth leading cause of death for those over age 65. The Alzheimer’s Association report offers numerous statistics that convey the burden Alzheimer’s imposes on individuals, caregiving families, government, business, and the nation’s health care and long-term care systems. For example:

• Every 71 seconds, someone in America develops Alzheimer’s disease; by mid-century someone will develop Alzheimer’s every 33 seconds.
• Women are nearly twice as likely as men to develop Alzheimer’s disease (17% vs. 9%). One in every six women and one in 10 men age 55 and older can expect to develop Alzheimer’s disease in their remaining lifetime. Although it may appear that being female is a risk factor, more women will develop Alzheimer’s because, on average, women live longer than men, thereby having more time to develop the disease.
• With respect to family caregiving, in 2007, there were nearly 10 million Americans age 18 and over providing 8.4 billion hours of unpaid caregiving to people with Alzheimer’s disease. The value of this caregiving was $89 billion, four times more than what Medicaid pays for nursing home care for people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
• In addition, a quarter million American children ages 8 to 18 years old are providing care to loved ones with Alzheimer’s.
• There are between 1 and 1.4 million long-distance caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients in the United States. About 1 million live more than two hours or more away from a diagnosed loved one and 400,000 others live at least an hour away from their loved ones. Many of these long distance caregivers also incur higher caregiving-related expenses compared to other caregivers.
• Seventy percent of people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias live at home where friends and family take care of them.

The facts above can also be found on the Alzheimer’s Association website.  When caring for a loved one with dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease, it is critically important to have a respite care plan in place.  You need to take care of yourself so that you can better care for those you are caring for.  Home Instead Senior Care can help.  Our CAREGivers are specially trained to care for clients with dementia, and we can work around your schedule to help you get the time away you need to refresh and rejuvinate.  We can answer questions you might have over the phone, and if our services are a good fit for your situation, we’ll come out to your home and meet with you, for a free consultation, to see what kind of care plan will work best for your situation.  Give us a call at 248-203-2273.

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