Alzheimer's Disease, A Humanitarian Crisis

A new article published by Forbes discusses how Alzheimer's disease should be treated as a humanitarian crisis and proposes innovative new strategies for managing care.

"My fellow Alzheimer’s doctors might take better care of our patients and their families if we saw Alzheimer’s disease as a cause of homelessness. With this perspective, that my patient in his kitchen is in fact homeless, I’m able to reframe the problem. I’ve come to see Alzheimer’s disease as a humanitarian crisis and my patients in need of humanitarian aid. They’re asking for a place to live, and we need to provide it.

Framing Alzheimer’s as a humanitarian crisis ties together the many diverse but interconnected sufferings: the millions of caregivers who struggle to make a typical day for the patients, struggle because their will to care is frustrated by a system ill-equipped to educate them about what to do, where to find care and how to pay for it. It explains how the causes of the Alzheimer’s crisis aren’t simply a biomedical problem in need of better drugs but a social, economic and political problem."

To read the full article click HERE.