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State
Alzheimer’s Plan to Address Growing Alzheimer’s Cases
Ohio has an
Opportunity to Help Some of its Most Vulnerable Citizens
In 18 months, Ohio is
expected to have its first official plan to galvanize
public, private and non-profit resources to address the
burgeoning growth of Alzheimer’s in Ohio.
Like an
Octopus
with tentacles, each case of Alzheimer’s reaches deep
into a family. According to the Alzheimer’s Association 2020
Facts and Figures report, there are 220,000 Ohioans aged 65
and older living with Alzheimer’s and 604,000 family and
friends who care for them.
But those numbers do not
tell the full story.
They do not include people
younger than 65 who have been diagnosed with early-onset
Alzheimer’s; the number does not include anyone diagnosed
with other dementias; it does not include people diagnosed
with mild cognitive impairment – which can be a precursor to
Alzheimer’s - ;and it is not inclusive of thousands of
Ohioans whose family members are ignoring the symptoms or
who are attributing the symptoms to normal aging and missing
the medical cause.
Eric VanVlymen, Regional
Leader for the Alzheimer’s Association in Ohio, said,
“Currently over half of the people are not diagnosed, and 50
percent are not told of their diagnosis. When you think
about that you have a better understanding of how
Alzheimer’s impacts families, communities and our economy.”
In August, Governor Mike
DeWine appointed 11 Ohioans to the newly minted State Task
Force on Alzheimer’s and Dementia, charged to create Ohio’s
first state Alzheimer’s plan. Led by Ohio Department of
Aging Director
Ursel J.
McElroy and a representative from The Ohio Department of
Health, the Task Force by law has 18 months to complete a
state Alzheimer’s plan. The group is expected to address
issues
such as the importance of early detection and diagnosis,
resources for caregiver support, quality of care and safety.
Whatever the State Task
Force comes up with, it will have a lasting impact on how
Ohio fights this progressive brain disease. “First, I want
to say thank you to the Governor and the elected officials
for making this happen and to the Ohio Department of Aging
Director
Ursel J.
McElroy for their leadership,” VanVlymen said. “As we expect
Alzheimer’s to double in the next 30 years, it’s essential
for the state to plan how to care for those individuals.
This is a unique opportunity to be proactive to greatly
increase the accuracy and timeliness of diagnosis through
early detection,” he said.
VanVlymen added that
accuracy and timeliness of diagnosis is more than just
catching the disease earlier in its progression. “The
proactive stance, based on where science stands, is to
ensure the accurate and timeliness of diagnosis but it also
means to be able to scale more services to reach more people
to prepare for the doubling,” he said.
The disease is costly.
Today, the average per-person Medicaid spending for seniors
with Alzheimer’s and other dementias is 23 times greater
than average per-person Medicaid spending across all seniors
without dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
In 2020, caring for people with Alzheimer’s nationwide will
cost Medicaid an estimated $51 billion — and will rise
nearly 300 percent (before inflation) by 2050.
Early Detection is Key
Dr. Alan Lerner, who is
co-director of the Clinical Core at the Cleveland
Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and Director of the
Brain Health and Memory Center at
the Neurological Institute of University Hospitals
Cleveland Medical Center, said early detection is critical
to beating Alzheimer’s. “The focus in the field is on early
detection,” Lerner said. “You need to have knowledge if we
think about a world where we can treat Alzheimer’s better,”
he said.
“We don’t wait for you to
be lying in ICU and sepsis to treat a urinary tract
infection. We don’t wait for a pea-size tumor to be a
larger-size tumor. Is Alzheimer’s any different? Dementia is
the last thing to happen. These are profound issues,” Dr.
Lerner said.
At this summer’s Alzheimer’s Association International
Conference® (AAIC), scientists reported results
of multiple studies on advances in creating a blood test to
detect changes in the brain before dementia symptoms occur.
Maria C. Carrillo, Ph.D., Alzheimer’s Association chief
science officer, said, “There is an urgent need for simple,
inexpensive, non-invasive and easily available diagnostic
tools for Alzheimer’s. …The possibility of early detection
and being able to intervene with a treatment before
significant damage to the brain from Alzheimer's disease
would be game changing for individuals, families and our
healthcare system.”
Another game-changer: A Possible Treatment on the Horizon
As the State Task Force
shapes its recommendations, those in the Alzheimer’s
community are waiting with anticipation to hear the results
of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s review of the
investigational drug
aducanumab.
If approved, aducanumab
would become the first treatment ever for Alzheimer’s
disease. All current Alzheimer’s treatments address symptoms
only. A decision is expected in 2021.
“This state plan comes at
a time when there could be dramatic changes in how we detect
and treat Alzheimer’s disease. The opportunity is here to
help hundreds of thousands of Ohioans dealing with this
crippling disease,” VanVlymen said.
Glance box
Alzheimer’s at a Glance:
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More than 5 Million Americans Live with Alzheimer’s
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Alzheimer’s Disease is the 6th Leading Cause of
Death in the United States
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1 in 3 Seniors Die with Alzheimer’s or Another Dementia
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16 Million Americans Provide Unpaid Care for People with
Alzheimer’s or Other Dementias
*Source: Alzheimer’s
Association 2020 Facts and Figures Report
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