I attended the Alzheimer’s Association Champions’ Breakfast May 26, honoring Dr. Katherine Stoddard Pope, a Portland area anesthesiologist. It was a touching breakfast from the first speaker, Donna Beveridge. Donna spoke movingly about her choices since she was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s two years ago. While the disease is robbing her of time and some abilities, it’s also allowing her to bring forth a vivid and imaginative painter, a powerful public speaker, and a woman of both fortitude and gratitude. You can hear Donna talk about her acceptance of the diagnosis on a short MPBN video.
Dr. Pope and Dr. Laurel Coleman, who is a member of the national board of the Alzheimer’s Association, also spoke.
Dr. Coleman talked about Alzheimer’s as being a disease of a stable and prosperous society, because the major risk factor is age. In 1900, average life expectancy in the US was 47. Today, our average life expectancy is 78. And if we live to age 65, we have about a 20% chance of developing Alzheimer’s. That risk factor doubles for every 5 years we age, which means we are in for a collision between an increasing cohort of aging Americans and an increasing incidence of Alzheimer’s. There are 40,000 Mainers living with Alzheimer’s or dementia now, and about 150,000 caregivers involved with their care.
Dr. Pope discussed the journey’s end: how a hospice model of palliative care that focuses on the physical, psychological, social and spiritual comfort of both the person with Alzheimer’s and their loved ones is the most effective and humane. Palliative care is patient and family centered, and offers higher quality care and a more integrated model. Dr. Pope was instrumental in establishing the Gosnell Memorial Hospice House, Hospice of Southern Maine.
I serve on the marketing and communications committee of the Maine chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, and appreciate all the good work they do. My best wishes to caregivers and their loved ones all over the state. Deborah