| Dear Alzheimer’s Advocate, Please Contact Senator Jim Nielsen TODAY! We are in the final days of the state budget process, and your state Senator, Jim Nielsen, is one of the 10 Conference Committee members who will decide whether or not to include $2.5 million to improve early detection and diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and other dementia in the state budget. Please ACT TODAY to help the 610,000 Californians living with Alzheimer’s disease: your email can help them get the care and support they need! Please personalize & send the following email to Senator Nielsen’s health aide in Sacramento, jennifer.teasdale@sen.ca.gov, and blind copy (bcc) me at jrothhaar@alz.org: Dear Senator Nielsen, I am a constituent and [DESCRIBE YOUR RELATIONSHIP TO ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE IN 1 SENTENCE]. Did you know that more than half of the 610,000 Californians with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia have never been informed of their diagnosis by their doctor, and that doctors report they don’t feel confident in their ability to diagnose Alzheimer’s and related dementias? In the budget conference committee, please adopt the Senate language to include $2.5 million in one-time spending to improve Alzheimer’s detection and diagnosis in the CDPH budget. The money will be used to train doctors to detect and diagnose Alzheimer’s and other dementias, so people can access the medical treatment, social supports, community resources and clinical trials they need. Without a diagnosis, hundreds of thousands of elderly and disabled Californians are slipping through the cracks in our health system. Their quality of life is suffering, and so is the state budget: California will spend $3.3 billion on Medi-Cal for beneficiaries with dementia this year alone, and that’s projected to increase by $1.7 billion over the next 10 years. Better diagnosis will save money: research shows that uninformed patients are hospitalized at twice the rate of those who have been diagnosed and informed of their diagnosis. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, [YOUR NAME & ADDRESS] Thank you for taking action! Sincerely, Jessica Rothhaar Manager, Policy & Advocacy Alzheimer’s Association of Northern California/Northern Nevada |