A facts and figures report from the Alzheimer’s Association revealed that there are 120,000 Washingtonians living with Alzheimer’s Disease and over 6 million affected nationwide.<\/p>\n
Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common cause of dementia, a term for memory loss and cognitive changes severe enough to interfere with daily living.<\/p>\n
Prior to the pandemic, Alzheimer’s was the third-leading cause of death in Washington, and the only leading cause of death that could not be prevented, cured or even slowed. An estimated 20% of hospice patients in the state are living with a primary diagnosis of dementia.<\/p>\n
Nationally, the number of Alzheimer’s deaths has increased 145% since 2000 — while the deaths from other causes such as heart disease, stroke and HIV have all declined, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.<\/p>\n
The number of people affected by the disease in Washington is expected to reach 140,000 by 2025, nearly a 17% increase over the next four years.<\/p>\n
Last year alone, Alzheimer’s cost Washington taxpayers $547 million in Medicaid dollars, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.<\/p>\n
Nationally, total payments for all individuals with Alzheimer’s or other dementias in 2021 are estimated to be $355 billion.<\/p>\n
While Medicaid and Medicare cover about 67% of these expenses, a whopping $76 billion or 21% are out-of-pocket expenses borne by individuals and families affected by the disease.<\/p>\n
The Alzheimer’s Association also estimated that Family members and friends provided nearly $257 billion in unpaid care to people living with dementia in 2020. Additionally in Washington State, there are an estimated 292,000 unpaid family caregivers supporting a loved one with the disease. They provided an estimated 426 million hours of care in 2020, valued at over $9.6 billion.<\/p>\n
Individuals affected by Alzheimer’s disease or close to someone who is living with it can call the Alzheimer’s Association 24\/7 helpline for information, guidance and support at 1-800-272-3900.<\/p>\n
The group also offers a number of virtual support groups across the Eastside: three in Bellevue, two in Kirkland, and others in Issaquah, Redmond and Renton.<\/p>\n
“Dementia is devastating, both emotionally and financially,” said a spokesperson for the Alzheimer’s Association, Carrie McBride. “It can be a long and difficult journey, but we want people to know that they don’t have to go through it alone.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Report records 120,000 diagnoses in Washington. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":849,"featured_media":49066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,4,24],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-49065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home2","category-news","category-northwest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49065"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/849"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49065"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=49065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}