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37 Thousand West Virginians Now Have Alzheimer's Disease

37 thousand West Virginians have Alzheimer’s Disease, according to a report released this week from the national Alzheimer’s Association.

For the first time, the annual Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures report also included a national survey on the financial cost of Alzheimer’s or dementia. It shows the diseases can be really expensive for families and caregivers, costing Americans 236 billion dollars in 2016.

In West Virginia, there are more than 100 thousand Alzheimer’s caregivers, providing more than 120 million hours of unpaid care. That work is valued at over 1.5 billion dollars.

Nationwide, nearly half of those at-home caregivers must cut back on their own expenses in order to afford dementia-related care and more than a third lost income due to employment disruption. Those resulted in an average loss of approximately 15 thousand dollars in income compared to the previous year.

The report projects that by 2025, the number of West Virginians with Alzheimer’s or another dementia will increase by almost 20 percent.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation.

Alzheimer's & Dementia University Travels to Shepherd U.

Over 200,000 people under the age of sixty-five suffer from Alzheimer’s in the United States. Around 4,000 of those live in West Virginia.

The Alzheimer’s Association West Virginia Chapter hosted, “Alzheimer’s & Dementia University” on Shepherd University’s campus Thursday to raise awareness about the disease that affects thousands of West Virginia families.

The program’s goal is to give families and professional caregivers a chance to get together and talk about Alzheimer’s; to give people a place to pose frequently asked questions about the disease.

The event is in its third year, traveling from county to county across the state.

Amy Ernst is the Training and Education Director for the West Virginia Chapter. She says there are over 5 million people in the United States with Alzheimer’s.

“We call it a journey, because Alzheimer’s disease is a terminal illness,” she said, “it’s the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. It’s not just a disease for the person, it’s a family disease.”

Ernst says there are around 36,000 people over the age of 65 who have the disease in West Virginia.

Senator Rockefeller, Honored in Fight Against Alzheimer's

Alzheimer’s disease takes its toll on thousands of American families every year. It is something that many of us face and one particular person was honored today for their work on the issue.

The West Virginia Alzheimer’s Association held their annual luncheon titled, “Thanks for the Memories” where they recognized those who fight to find a cure for the disease. In attendance was Senator Jay Rockefeller, co-founder of the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute.

When the luncheon entered its first year, Rockefeller received the inaugural award named in his honor for his commitment to advancing research into Alzheimer’s and other diseases of the brain. Along with his family, Senator Rockefeller founded the BRNI in Morgantown in 1999, to honor his late mother, who passed away after a 10-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

You can find out more information about the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute at their website, www.brni.org.