Published in Senior Digest on November 2006

According to the Alzheimer’s Association Rhode Island Chapter (AARIC), it is estimated that 25,000 Ocean State residents are afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease. When you combine 100,000 caregivers with that number you have a devastating disorder that touches many people.

Don’t expect the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease to decrease any time soon, warns Liz Morancy, AARIC’s executive director. “Getting older is the biggest risk factor, and we are an aging state in an aging nation,” she says.  “The course of the disease varies from person to person, as does the rate of decline.”

“The costs to society are enormous, too, costing the health care system and business well over $32 billion,” Morancy notes. The federal government and states will be hit hard by the rising costs when they struggle to provide assistance and services to an increasing number of people with Alzheimer’s disease, she predicts.

Not every episode of forgetfulness is the advent of Alzheimer’s disease, Morancy notes, saying that it is common to forget words or information, especially when you have multiple responsibilities; you’re under stress, feeling fatigued or are distracted. She quickly rattles off many of the early symptoms: constant forgetfulness; lack of awareness that you have forgotten something; forgetting recently learned information; and memory loss that interferes with your daily life. One’s ability to use numbers and drastic personality changes can also be associated with this mental disorder.

Caregivers work a “36-hour day” taking care of their afflicted loved ones with Alzheimer’s adds Morancy. “A caregiver in Rhode Island traditionally has been a woman who is the wife, daughter or daughter-in-law of the patient. If she is the daughter, the majority of the time she is also taking care of young children. As the caregiver ages, she must cope with her own physical health problems, too,” Morancy said.

However, today “we have noticed an increasing number of men taking on the caregiver role and responsibility,” Morancy says. “A husband may take care of his wife without the assistance of children who live far away.”

There are only a few “modest drugs” that can slow the effects of Alzheimer’s disease, according to Morancy. She hopes that more effective treatments will become available in the next few years. In order to keep loved ones with Alzheimer’s independent and in their homes for as long as possible, caregivers need the support services from home care and adult day care programs.

For caregivers and their families, the Rhode Island Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association has become a beacon of hope and a valuable resource in surviving the stresses of caregiving, Morancy says.

Established 17 years ago, the organization started off as an all-volunteer agency with a $50,000 budget. Today the nonprofit agency has eight staff members and a budget of $700,000 with hundreds of volunteers working in a variety of capacities, according to Morancy, who has led the chapter for more than 15 years.

With the 14^th Annual Memory Walk, sponsored by AARIC last month, public awareness of this devastating disorder was ratcheted up a little higher, Morancy says. The group’s family support and education activities will be bolstered by the $ 250,000 raised by more than 1,300 supporters who walked the three-mile course in Providence and Newport.

“Our Memory Walk is a key funding source for us,” admitted Morancy. “Oftentimes, major private foundations do not recognize the reality of the increasing number of elderly, and they do not fund programs addressing their needs adequately. Sadly, children advocates are pitted against those working on behalf of seniors,” she says.

Morancy says AARIC offers caregiver and family assisted at 18 affiliated support groups that regularly meet throughout the Ocean State. The chapter also provides a help line and care consultation, education and training programs geared to both health care professionals and caregivers.

Additionally caregivers can obtain pamphlets, books, and videos through the chapter and participate in a safe return program that helps to locate persons with Alzheimer’s who wander away from home.  There are few people in Rhode Island whose lives have not been touched by the Alzheimer’s disease, and there are many lives that have been touched through the programs and services of AARIC.