Congress Must Prioritize Alzheimer’s Research
Dear Editor,
There are more than 5 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease and more than 16 million unpaid Alzheimer’s caregivers. Among them are the 170,000 living in NC and their 473,000 caregivers. As someone who lost her father to this horrible disease, and as an Alzheimer’s advocate, it is my honor to represent them.
Our group just returned from Washington, D.C. for the Alzheimer’s Impact Movement Advocacy Forum convening more than 1,200 Alzheimer’s advocates from across the nation on Capitol Hill. While on Capitol Hill, advocates met with Senator Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina to explain why Congress must continue to prioritize legislative action against Alzheimer’s.
We asked Sen. Tillis to support legislation that will provide researchers, healthcare professionals, caregivers and individuals with the educational tools and resources necessary to meaningfully combat Alzheimer’s disease. Specifically, we urged him to support funding for increased Alzheimer’s disease research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as funding to implement the Building Our Largest Dementia (BOLD) Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act (P.L. 115-406) which Congress passed into law late last year.
And we thank Sen. Tillis for co-sponsoring BOLD last year and helping it get passed.
Please join me in urging Senator Tillis to invest in policies that address Alzheimer’s disease as the national public-health crisis it is.
To learn more about this disease and how you can join the fight to end Alzheimer’s, visit alzimpact.org.
Nancy Brown
