The Alzheimer's Association Facts and Figures report came out Wednesday, and shows continued challenges to care, barriers to diagnoses, shortages in workforce, a lack of family support for caregivers, and more. One organization seeks to help affected people deal with those conditions.
Sarah Lovegreen, president of the Alzheimer's Association, joined KMOX alongside Deb Jobe, an advocate who was diagnosed with early-onset dementia at age 53 and has made it her mission to raise awareness about the importance of an early and accurate diagnosis.
Deb told KMOX that before she was diagnosed, she was in a high-stress, visible position at her job, but suddenly she found that she couldn't absorb or learn new material like she'd previously been able to.
"I would lose my words, or weird words would come out. And my husband, I was not remembering things that he would say or he'd be repeating him two or three times over, he finally said, 'Deb, there's something wrong,'" she said. "And then he says 'You've got to go to the doctors.' And that's where the journey began."
Lovegreen told KMOX there are a lot of potential reasons that people aren't diagnosed early enough.
"I think we have patients who are ready to have the conversation with their physician, right, maybe aren't being encouraged like Deb was by her spouse to have that conversation with the doctor," Lovegreen explained. "But primary care is also hesitant to have the conversation because we know there's a backlog to see a specialist and really get that referral through the health care process."
Lovegreen expanded on the experiences of caregivers, who she said are dealing with lots of stress.
"There's an emotional burden, there's a physical burden, and they're suffering from other chronic diseases, heart disease, diabetes, and others at a higher rate than people who aren't caregivers," she said.
Jobe added that she can see the stress on her husband's face since he's taken over as her caregiver.
"He tries not to show me but I can see it and that just breaks my heart," she said.
Read up on the report from the Alzheimer's Association here and listen to the full conversation with Sarah Lovegreen and Deb Jobe on KMOX:
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