The Changing Face of Caregiving in the 21st Century

November is National Alzheimer’s Month and Family Caregivers Month, offering an important opportunity to reflect on the changing role of caregiving and how dementia is shaping our nation’s care crisis. We kicked off this month with former first lady Rossalyn Carter and leaders from across the country at The Rosalynn Carter Institute’s Caregiving in the 21st Century Summit where we explored these themes. The Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving combined the traditional voices of health providers with more unconventional perspectives, including Sesame Street’s Rosita and award-winning journalist Judy Woodruff, to develop solutions to support our nation’s 40 million family caregivers

The prescription for an effective treatment or cure for Alzheimer’s: More research and cautious optimism

It’s been an exciting few weeks in the Alzheimer’s world – a world that hasn’t seen a new drug in 15 years. All of the activity has raised a lot of questions around the world’s progress towards a cure.

It’s time to pick up the pace on Alzheimer’s prevention

It’s time that we own up to a harsh reality: Our nation’s healthcare and economic systems are not prepared for the toll that dementia and Alzheimer’s are expected to take on America’s aging population. Given the latest trends in demographic data, there is growing concern that the U.S. is failing to focus on brain health and ways to potentially prevent the devastating impact of Alzheimer’s disease that is currently on pace to hit millions of American families. UsAgainstAlzheimer’s has been sounding the alarm on these issues, promoting more attention to brain health, and urging more aggressive steps on prevention. And

A road map for including Latinos and African Americans in Alzheimer’s research

* This piece originally appeared in STAT News. Alzheimer’s disease is the only leading cause of death in the U.S. that is still on the rise and that does not have a current effective treatment or cure. The limited inclusion of Latinos and African Americans in research will only worsen the outlook, though the success of efforts bubbling up across the country could help us keep up with the disease. The face of Alzheimer’s is changing, largely because the No. 1 risk factor for it is advanced age. By 2030, the number of Latinos age 65 and older will have

U.S. surgeons general: Dementia is our top public health crisis | Commentary

* This piece originally appeared in the Orlando Sentinal Over the span of more than 20 years and three presidents, as surgeons general we’ve confronted more than our fair share of devastating public health crises, from emerging infections like bird flu, SARS, the H1N1 pandemic, and Ebola, to the opioid crisis and national-preparedness issues like hurricanes and terrorist attacks. All of them are tragic. Each caused governments and private organizations to rally to understand the threat, inform the public, develop solutions, and minimize the impact as much as possible on American families and the economy. And as terrible as these