MUST READS 

A June 23, 2015 CNN.com article by James Keach, producer and director of Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me, highlighted the singer’s efforts to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s by sharing his story. According to Keach, “Glen had just been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and his family and management team were worried about sharing this news. Glen and his wife, Kim, knew it was risky to go public with the diagnosis and for Glen to perform live while showing growing signs of the disease. Glen wanted to tell his story and not shy away from the reality he was facing. The Campbells learned that millions were coping with the fatal disease (5.5 million Americans have Alzheimer's; every 68 seconds, someone new is diagnosed). Glen was showing increasing signs of dementia, but he loved the stage and hoped to keep performing as long as he could.”

A June 22, 2015 The Pew Charitable Trusts article highlighted a new state focus on family caregivers. According to the article, “The Mercers’ story was a driving force behind an Oklahoma law that took effect in November that requires hospitals to train a designated family caregiver to tend to the medical needs of a released patient. Since then, 12 more states (Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Virginia and West Virginia) have approved similar laws. In Illinois and New York, legislation is awaiting the governor’s signature. As many as 42 million Americans take care of a family member at any given time. Traditionally, family caregivers provide assistance with bathing, dressing and eating. They shop for groceries and manage finances. But as the number of elderly Americans with chronic conditions has grown, family caregivers have taken on medical tasks once provided only in hospitals, nursing homes or by home care professionals.”

A June 21, 2015 The Boston Globe article reported on issues related to older driver safety, including Alzheimer’s. According to the article, “It’s the conversation no adult child wants to have, the family dynamic few want to discuss publicly. But the pain pours out on an Alzheimer’s help line, where middle-aged sons and daughters call crying, afraid to tell mom or dad it’s time to stop driving, and equally afraid not to…Last week, on June 16, the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston convened an older driver safety summit, a “call to action” as the state’s over-65 population is growing at a record pace, and car accidents involving older drivers account for one in five crash-related hospital stays in the state, and 12 percent of crash fatalities. But with 70 percent of Americans over 50 living in suburban or rural areas with little or no public transportation, a person’s home is not just his castle “but his prison,” said Joseph Coughlin, director of MIT’s AgeLab.” Also reported on by The Telegraph (UK). 

POLICY AND POLITICS

A June 22, 2015 Associated Press article (via Fox News) reported on advances in studying and understanding the brain. According to the article, “How does this collection of nearly 100 billion densely packed nerve cells, acting through circuits with maybe 100 trillion connections, let us think, feel, act and perceive our world? How does this complex machine go wrong and make people depressed, or delusional, or demented? What can be done about that?These are the kinds of questions that spurred President Barack Obama to launch the BRAIN initiative in 2013. Its aim: to spur development of new tools to investigate the brain. Europe and Japan are also pursuing major efforts in brain research. The mysteries of this organ, which sucks up about 20 percent of the body's energy, are many and profound. But with a collection of sophisticated devices, scientists are peering inside the working brains of people for clues to what makes us tick.”

A June 22, 2015 The Boston Globe article reported that Forum Pharmaceuticals recieved “fast-track” approval from the FDA for a schizophrenia treatment that is also being tested for Alzheimer’s. According to the article, “Forum has recruited 1,500 patients for the phase-three study and plans to release results next year. The drug also is being tested for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, according to Forum, which has a licensing agreement with a Japanese drug company to develop and sell encenicline in Asia.”