Hawaii’s first plan to address Alzheimer’s disease and dementia forecasts effective prevention of Alzheimer’s by 2025 while calling on volunteer caregivers, health care professionals and others in the near term to step up training in the complicated issues tied to both conditions.
The plan, which was released Monday, does not offer answers to the question of how Alzheimer’s will be prevented in 11 years.
The year "2025 to prevent Alzheimer’s would be optimistic," said Cullen Hayashida, director of Kapiolani Community College’s Kupuna Education Center, who was not involved in the report. "I don’t want to suggest it’s not a worthwhile dream, because this is a major, major challenge, not only for the state, but for the world. But for families it’s primarily about creating the infrastructure to support them. That is possible."
And that’s a big part of how Hawaii plans to address Alzheimer’s and dementia by 2025.
The very existence of the plan helped the state Executive Office on Aging secure a $50,000 grant to teach trainers on Maui how to use new tools to help identify stress factors among Alzheimer’s and dementia caregivers, said Wes Lum, director of the Executive Office on Aging, which released the report.
"We’re also working with our Hawaii Bar Association to assure that not only elder law attorneys, but all attorneys are trained so that when you’re talking about powers of attorney and advanced health care directives, there is sensitivity around this," Lum said. "Right now it’s sporadic."
What’s new in the report for people dealing with Alzheimer’s and dementia today, Lum said, "is now we have a road map that we didn’t have before," adding, "We have some really great champions in dementia care, but now we want to replicate what works and expand on that and pull together partnerships where we can work together. We don’t have access to attorneys, but we have access to the content they need. The bar association doesn’t have the familiarity with supports services, but we do."
The plan does go into detail about a problem that is expected to get worse in the islands in the near future.
Hawaii already has an estimated 25,000 people over the age of 65 who have been diagnosed with dementia. By 2025 the number is forecast to grow 40 percent — to 35,000 people.
The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America describes Alzheimer’s disease as a progressive, degenerative disorder that attacks the brain’s nerve cells, or neurons, resulting in behavioral changes and loss of memory, thinking and language skills. The disease is the most common cause of dementia, or loss of intellectual function, among people age 65 and older.
Hayashida, whose KCC program helps family members deal with the stresses of caring for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients, has also contended with such stresses in his own family.
"A lot of people just do not understand the progression of the disease and what’s happening and why it’s happening," Hayashida said. "My mother-in-law had Alzheimer’s, and we went through some rough times. … We do need more resources and collaborative work to tackle this disease."
The plan is available at www.hawaiiadrc.org/site/439/resources.aspx.
