Fighting to fund Alzheimer’s research
LANSING Mich. (WLNS) – Alzheimer’s continues to affect families across Michigan. That’s why dozens of people with The Michigan Alzheimer’s Association were at the Capitol Tuesday looking to get more funding to help fight the disease.
They said the current resources are not enough. That includes Tresa Carter, an advocate with the group, who lost her mother and her two aunts to Alzheimer’s.
“I want to help stop this. Make it better. If not for me, I have grandchildren, I have great-grandchildren,” Carter said.
Carter said she has seen what’s out there when it comes to helping Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers. She said that things need to change so she doesn’t have to struggle to find resources if she is ever diagnosed. She looked back at the struggles her mother faced.
“Taking her to the doctor and the doctor not really recognizing what’s going on. Telling me oh She’s just getting older. Just getting older does not mean I’m going to walk on the porch one day, and she’s sitting out there slumped over and when I say ‘mom, mom’ and she tells me she’s dead,” Carter said.
The group is asking for a funding increase of $2 million from the State annually. The funds would be used to expand Michigan’s dementia and healthy brain unit. Organizers said the funds would allow for faster patient diagnosis. Another advocate, Jenny Mcculloch, cared for her grandmother who had Alzheimer’s. Like Carter, she had trouble finding resources.
“There was just not a lot of education or resources available. And it’s exhausting as a caregiver, it’s exhausting to see your loved one go through this,” Mcculloch said.
The other thing the group is asking lawmakers for is to create legislation requiring Michigan first responders to get training on dementia. It would allow them to have safe, and calm encounters and correctly de-escalate situations if needed.
“I couldn’t imagine someone not being able to communicate and de-escalate, and to get my grandma in the right state of mind,” Mcculloch said.
For Carter, she hopes lawmakers will hear her experiences and listen to her requests.
“It would give you some type of hope that you could do something to help your family member. And not just watch them step off a cliff and you can’t grab them, and they don’t know that they should grab back,” Carter said.
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