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INDIANAPOLIS - The Alzheimer's Association recently released its annual report highlighting facts and figures about people impacted by the disease and this year’s national information focuses on the unpaid caregiver.
Over 110,000 Hoosiers are living with Alzheimer’s disease and over 330,000 unpaid caregivers are providing an estimated four point six billion dollars in care. Program Director for the Alzheimer’s Association Greater Indianapolis Chapter, Linda Altmeyer says the new data highlights other sacrifices that unpaid caregivers make.
"Often people quit their job or reduce their number of hours and then often they’ll go without food, they’ll reduce their number of prescriptions… because they’re trying to take care of somebody with a disease that’s very expensive." Said Altmeyer.
The 2016 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures report also finds that nearly half of care contributors dipped into retirement or savings. One of these caregivers is Sheryl Chamberlain, whose husband who was diagnosed three years ago.
"He had some other health issues that slowed down his work and he owned his own business therefore there wasn’t a continuous paycheck coming in… so we have pretty much gone through all of our retirement money." Chamberlain said.
Total payments for Alzheimer’s care is projected to increase to more than one trillion in spending by 2050, that’s up from two hundred and thirty six billion this year.
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