Bipartisan legislation introduced by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) on Friday would provide additional training and support to family caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.
The Alzheimer’s Caregiver Support Act, S. 3113, introduced by Collins and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), would authorize grants to public and nonprofit organizations to provide enhanced training and support that improves caregiver health and prevents long-term admissions for patient care.
“There are many families who know all too well the compassion, commitment, and endurance that it takes to be a caregiver of a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease,” Collins said. “Our caregivers devote enormous time and attention, and they frequently must make many personal and financial sacrifices to ensure that their loved ones have the high-quality care they need day in and day out. Our bipartisan legislation would help expand the availability of resources and training services that support the nearly 16 million caregivers across our nation who care for individuals with Alzheimer’s and related dementias.”
More than five million Americans suffer from dementia, and family caregivers paid an estimated $10.2 billion in additional medical costs for themselves due to added stress and depression as a result in 2015 alone.
“Today, nearly 16 million Americans are serving as a family caregiver to a loved one living with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia, providing nearly 18 billion hours of unpaid care annually,” Klobuchar said. “These loving caregivers are largely untrained and unsupported and face many challenges.”
The purpose of the legislation, Klobuchar added, is to expand training and support services that help family caregivers improve their health and wellbeing while also enabling them to provide better care that lets patients remain in their homes for longer.
UsAgainstAlzheimer’s, the Alzheimer’s Association and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America have all expressed support for the bill.
“The Alzheimer’s Caregiver Support Act helps ensure better outcomes for both individuals with dementia and their family caregivers, and helps lower overall care costs,” Charles Fuschillo, Jr., the president and CEO of the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, said. “The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America commends Senators Klobuchar and Collins for their introduction of this important legislation and looks forward to working with them and our other champions in Congress to get this bill passed into law.”
Collins and Klobuchar called on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services earlier this year to establish a program to assess how providing Alzheimer’s support services to caregivers would impact Medicare beneficiaries who are impacted by dementia.