Wouldn’t it be great if the Ecumen team members above and thousands of others didn’t have to do an Alzheimer’s Walk?  Wouldn’t it be great if we could close all of our memory care housing?  Wouldn’t it be great if the cure for Alzheimer’s were here?

We know the answers to those questions.  Now comes new information from the Alzheimer’s Association’s 2009 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures Report.  This is amazing stuff.  It impacts those kids to the left just as it impact us who are older:

– By 2010, there will be nearly a half million new cases of Alzheimer’s each year. By 2050, that number will double to nearly a million new cases per year.

– As many as 5.3 million people in the United States are living with Alzheimer’s disease.
Every 70 seconds, someone develops Alzheimer’s disease.

– Alzheimer’s is now the seventh-leading cause of death in the United States, surpassing diabetes; it is the fifth-leading cause of death among individuals 65 and older, following heart disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and stroke.

-The National Academy of Sciences estimates that an additional 3.5 million health-care workers will be required by 2030 just to maintain current levels of staffing for Alzheimer’s care demands.

– Total healthcare costs are more than three times higher for people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias than for other people age 65 and older.