The O Spot

“Alzheimer’s is the most under-recognized threat to public health in the 21st century.”-Dr. David Satcher, former U.S. Surgeon General.

Today marks the first day of the 2018 Alzheimer’s Advocacy Forum in D.C. One of the major pushes of the Forum is to ask congressional leaders to pass the BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act. This bill will help public health officials promote healthy lifestyle interventions that may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s, promote early detection and diagnosis, and improve the collection of data to better analyze the impact of Alzheimer’s disease. 

I am grateful that my wife is able to attend this year’s Advocacy Forum. She, along with other advocates, have already succeeded in getting our Congressman, Donald McEachin, to sign on as a co-sponsor. I am hopeful that the advocates at the forum will be able to convince their Representatives and Senators to sign on as well. 

There have been elected officials that have said, “We have enough issues going on right now, I don’t have time to review this.” When the new administration took over in 2017, I wondered how Alzheimer’s Advocates  would be able to ask Congress for more funding when so many other issues were going on. However, my cousin wisely told me, “Keep up the Alzheimer’s advocacy alongside everything else-taking care of people is the heart of this fight." 

To the elected officials who say there are too many other issues going on, I want you to remember that this public health problem isn’t going away anytime soon. It’s estimated that it cost $259 billion to care for people with Alzheimer’s, and that Medicare and Medicaid bear 2/3 of the health and long term costs of those with Alzheimer’s. Listen to the advocates on the financial, social, and psychological impacts of Alzheimer’s. Please give the proper resources to our public health officials to better tackle Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

Donald Trump is a Nazi. He has assembled a cabinet of Nazis to run his fascist regime. He doesn’t call himself a Nazi, because Nazis never do. From the start “Nazi” was an insult. We all now face a choice in how to respond to this. We can either resist or collaborate. There are no other options. This is a decision we all face, but it is a particularly pertinent choice for the American people, and, crucially, the political establishment in America. Both Republican and Democrat politicians need to choose, are they going to resist or collaborate?

These difficult conversations are more important than ever. Here’s how to overcome the roadblocks.