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AFA E-Newsletter

November 3, 2017 


Show Your Support During Alzheimer's Awareness Month in November  


November is Alzheimer's Awareness Month, a time when we show support for all of those living with Alzheimer's disease and raise awareness of the need for funding for a cure and caregiver supports. 

There are a number of ways in which you can show your support this November.

1. Go Teal.  Take part in AFA's "30 Days of Teal" program by taking a photo of yourself wearing teal and post it to social media using the hashtag #AFA30DaysOfTeal, or send it to AFA for a chance to be featured on AFA's social media pages.     
                 
           
  









Go teal by requesting an AFA Cause Bracelet.                                
        
                    
2. Shop Amazon S mile. 
  




  
When you shop through AmazonSmile, you can have the added bonus of Amazon donating a portion of the proceeds to the Alzheimer's Foundation of America.  Participating is easy; sign to your account on the site (or create an account if you don't have one) and select the option to change your charity.  Select Alzheimer's Foundation of America to support.      
                                                     
3. Giving Tuesday.  Giving Tuesday is a worldwide campaign that encourages people to give to charity.  Consider giving to AFA and encourage others to do the same. Visit AFA's Facebook page to find out how. 

4. Donate to AFA.  By donating money to AFA, you are helping to support our programs which help the more than 5 million Americans living with Alzheimer's disease, and their families and caregivers.    Click here to donate to AFA.

5. Light the World in Teal.  Approximately 200 landmarks across the country and around the world will be "going teal" on November 8th as part of AFA's Light the World in Teal program.  You can help too! If you have a building that would like to light up in teal, please call AFA.
 
Empire State Building in NYC going teal.
November Programming at AFA's Education & Resource Center

AFA is once again offering a variety of community classes, educational programs, and professional training seminars at its Education & Resource Center.  Events include music and dance classes, memory screenings and therapeutic programs for caregivers as part of National Caregiver Month.

 

Learn more about these events and register by clicking here.



Get A Free Memory Screening This November
Not only is November Alzheimer's Awareness Month, but it is also National Memory Screening Month.  In partnership with AFA, all Kmart Pharmacies nationwide will be conducting free memory screenings throughout the month.  A memory screening is a simple, non-invasive test to check cognitive health, consisting of questions and tasks designed to gauge memory, language and thinking skills.  For locations offering free memory screenings, please contact AFA or visit Kmart Pharmacy's website

 
                                                                                                                           

Updates from Washington

 
NIH HOLDS FIRST EVER DEMENTIA CAREGIVER
 RESEARCH SUMMIT
 

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), together with other federal agencies, recently held the first ever Research Summit on Dementia Care. The goal was to identify how to accelerate the development, evaluation, translation, implementation, and scaling up of comprehensive care, services, and supports for persons living with dementia, families, and other caregivers. 
 
The summit concluded that cultural diversity is important and we must seek diversity in outreach messaging and workforce makeup;  causality matters and more research needs to be done; multifunctional interventions (ie, medication combined with exercise, diet, socialization) can help and maintain function; caregiver support is essential and yet only six of over 200 tested programs are being implemented; scaling models remains a barrier to broader implementation of person-centered care models.

Summit materials and presentations can be found here


 
SENATE PASSES RAISE FAMILY CAREGIVER'S ACT
 
 
The Senate passed by unanimous consent, the RAISE Family Caregiver Act. The legislation calls for development of a national strategy to support family caregivers. It would bring together stakeholders from the private and public sectors to recommend actions, in a national comprehensive plan, that communities, providers, government, and others can take to make the responsibilities of caregiving a bit easier. 



 
 
The Senate unanimously passed the Creating High-Quality Results and Outcomes Necessary to Improve Chronic (CHRONIC) Care Act of 2017.  The Act extends the Independence at Home (IAH) demonstration for two years and increases the number of Medicare beneficiaries that can be included in the program from 10,000 to 15,000. The IAH demonstration provides shared savings incentive payments to medical teams providing high quality home-based care to Medicare beneficiaries with multiple chronic conditions, including dementia.
 
 
 
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