Montana Senator John Walsh Holds Hearing on Alzheimer's: "Sooner or later, we will all be affected."

Kathleen Burke’s voice broke as she told U.S. Sen. John Walsh, D-Mont., the story of how Alzheimer’s disease has changed her life as a caregiver and the lives of both her parents.

Walsh, who was at the South Park Senior Center to conduct a field hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, heard Burke tell about her parents’ 68th wedding anniversary, celebrated by the Alzheimer’s patients together at a nursing home where her mother was staying.

“Mom pushed Dad away when he bent over to kiss her goodbye, saying that her husband would not like that,” Burke said. “It was difficult for me to see, but probably worse for him since he would not talk about it.”

Other panelists described how Alzheimer’s and other brain disorders will affect more and more families in the coming years. George Carlson, director and professor at McLaughlin Research Institute, a biomedical research organization in Great Falls, said that five million Americans and about 25,000 Montanans have Alzheimer’s or related dementias, with an annual cost of about $100 billion.

If nothing changes, by 2050 as many as 16 million Americans will be affected, costing the economy $1.2 trillion annually. Currently the U.S. economy is about $17.3 trillion.

Walsh noted that about 48,000 Montanans care for someone with Alzheimer’s or other dementia. The Alzheimer’s Association estimates the value of Montanans’ unpaid care reached $677 million in 2013. Nearly two-thirds of those providing care are women, and about two-thirds of Alzheimer’s patients are women.

Carlson said increased Alzheimer’s research funding is sorely needed, since there are no therapies capable of even slowing Alzheimer’s effects. For every $28,000 the federal government spends on caring for patients with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, $100 goes to support research. “Research is at a pivotal point,” he said. “It is largely a matter of our elected representatives deciding that a cure is worth funding.”

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Walsh Holds Hearing on Alzheimer's:  "Sooner or later, we will all be affected."