Weekly Message

There’s a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about dementia.

Unfortunately, it’s led to a lot of wrong information being put out in the world.

And despite dementia cases increasing more than ever, the number of dementia experts and people you can trust are dwindling.

According to the 2023 Alzheimer’s Association Facts and Figures report, 1 in 3 older adults dies with some type of dementia. This is MORE than breast cancer and prostate cancer COMBINED!

And despite the growing number of people with dementia, 40% of primary care providers (PCP’s) surveyed by the Alzheimer’s Association in 2019 reported that they were “never” or “only sometimes” comfortable making a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or another dementia.

More than 25% of PCPs reported “never” or “only sometimes” being comfortable answering patient questions about dementia.

And 50% of PCP’s did not feel adequately prepared to care for individuals who had been diagnosed.

This is a real problem.

It’s no wonder that amazing caregivers like yourself are finding it difficult to find the information you need to best prepare and care for your loved one.

Many of us are even trying to fill the knowledge gap by turning to places online (like this) to get the support and information you can’t seem to get elsewhere.

While the internet is an amazing place filled with resources and information, it can be hard to know what information is actually true and what information isn’t.

And influencers who know how to record attention-grabbing videos on Facebook or TikTok are starting to become go-to resources for caregivers despite most of them recording videos to get views/comments rather than to provide truth.

It can be a confusing and scary time for the dementia caregivers of the world.

But I am here to tell you there is HOPE for change.

There are always things you can do to improve your situation.

AND this newsletter will be here with you every step of the way to help.

We’re just getting started. There’s a lot of helpful information coming your way.

To help get you started off on the right foot, I’m including some incredible resources for you below.

Resources

Every year the Alzheimer’s Association releases an incredible data packed report on trends, statistics, and important information related to the state of dementia in the United States. It’s called the Facts and Figures Report and it’s always free and available to anyone.

Even though the report is published by the Alzheimer’s Association, it contains information on different types of dementia. And even though most of the data pertains to the United States, the key takeaways and findings can be helpful for caregivers living worldwide.

If you take away any message of hope from the report below, let it be that there are groups of scientists and researchers working behind the scenes to improve the life of people with dementia and the people who care for them (…that’s you).