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FULCHER: Constituent request

| December 23, 2018 12:00 AM

As Russ Fulcher replaces Raul Labrador as our representative in the U.S. Congress, I hope he recognizes that Alzheimer’s disease is the most expensive disease in America and that Congressional action is essential to fight this disease. The financial and emotional cost of caring for individuals with this life threatening disease not only affects the citizens of Kootenai County, but impacts all of the citizens in the state of Idaho.

This is important to me because as a social worker working with individuals in a skilled nursing facility, I witness daily the emotional and financial impact Alzheimer’s disease has on individuals and their families.

Currently, there are more than 25,000 people in Idaho living with Alzheimer’s or other dementias, being cared for in their homes by approximately 83,000 unpaid family caregivers or in skilled nursing facilities with the state of Idaho paying for their care through Medicaid.

In recent years, Congress has dramatically increased funding for Alzheimer’s research at the National Institutes of Health. But Alzheimer’s Association priority bills to provide better care and support for people with dementia advanced, but did not pass. The BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act and the Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act must be reintroduced in 2019.

Let’s all urge Mr. Fulcher to join Senators Mike Crapo and Jim Risch in making Alzheimer’s a national priority.

CHERYL THOMPSON, LMSW

Coeur d’Alene