Ideal State Consulting

Learn more at https://www.southwesthealth.org/myhealthylife/programs/

Approximately 6 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia, and there is no cure. This number is expected to nearly triple by 2050.

The Alzheimer’s Association (https://bit.ly/2KbCPTx) provides the following statistics about the toll these diseases take not only on those who are diagnosed, but on their families and caregivers.

• About one in three caregivers (34 percent) is age 65 or older.
• Approximately two-thirds of caregivers are women; more specifically, over one-third of dementia caregivers are daughters.
• Most caregivers (66 percent) live with the person with dementia in the community.
• Approximately one-quarter of dementia caregivers are "sandwich generation" caregivers — meaning that they care not only for an aging parent, but also for children under age 18.
• People living with Alzheimer's or other dementias have twice as many hospital stays per year as other older people.
• Medicare beneficiaries with Alzheimer's or other dementias are more likely than those without dementia to have other chronic conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes and kidney disease.
• Older people living with Alzheimer’s or other dementias have more skilled nursing facility stays and home health care visits per year than other older people.
• People living with Alzheimer's or other dementias make up a large proportion of all elderly people who receive adult day services and nursing home care.

We can be overwhelmed by these challenges or we can see the opportunity within them to do good, to ease burdens, and to help limit additional trauma. We can see this as an opportunity to develop expertise and deploy skills, knowledge, and training to help families maximize their quality of life. We can become part of the satisfying solution.