HHS addresses Alzheimer's with national plan, new funds, caregiver resources

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced a national plan to address Alzheimer’s disease. The five-point initiative, which is part of the Obama administration’s National Alzheimer’s Project Act, calls for the development of effective prevention and treatment approaches to Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

The initiatives, according to the NIH, are as follows:

Funding of new NIH clinical trials that will focus on emerging technologies for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, one of which is a $7.9 million effort to test an insulin nasal spray designed to treat the disease.

Two million dollars in funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration to provide training for doctors, nurses and other health care providers to recognize the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and manage it.

Easier access to information about Alzheimer’s disease, including a new HHS website (www.alzheimers.gov), which provides, among other things, access to local resources for caregivers.

A new media campaign to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s disease.

According to the NIH, President Obama has proposed a $100 million increase in the 2013 fiscal year federal budget to fight Alzheimer’s disease, with $80 million supporting additional research, $10.5 million invested in caregiver support, $4.2 million to improve public awareness of the disease, $4 million for provider education programs and $1.3 million to improve data collection.

“These actions are the cornerstones of an historic effort to fight Alzheimer’s disease,” Sebelius said in a press release. “This is a national plan — not a federal one, because reducing the burden of Alzheimer’s will require the active engagement of both the public and private sectors.”

There are approximately 5.1 million Americans with Alzheimer’s disease, according to the NIH. For more information on the HHS initiative, visit http://aspe.hhs.gov/daltcp/napa/NatlPlan.shtml.