At a recent Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) experts and caregivers stressed the importance of a dementia-competence workforce and advancement opportunities for these individuals to ensure better quality of life for patients and their families.
Statistics regarding Alzheimer’s disease are alarming and driving an urgent need for solutions. For instance, healthcare costs for AD and related dementias in the U.S. alone is expected to soar to $1.1 trillion by 2050, up from $355 billion today.
At the hearing, Mark Supiano, MD, chief of the Division of Geriatrics at the University of Utah School of Medicine and executive director of the University of Utah Center on Aging, said, “there is a special need to support hands-on caregivers and direct care workers – in the home and in the long-term care settings – to equip them to care for persons with dementia.” This support, he added, “should include ensuring living wages, benefits and paid family leave.”
