This just in! The Alzheimer’s Association’s “2010 Facts and Figures Report” presents a thorough and comprehensible breakdown of the information that is currently available regarding Alzheimer’s and dementia in the US. It touches on all the major topics, including the suspected causes and available treatments of the disease, prevalence and risk estimates, care-giving and mortality and the costs and effects on individuals and society as a whole.

Basically, the report states what experts have been saying for some time now – that we are at the brink of an epidemic that needs to be addressed, and measures need to be set in place so that we as a nation can be better prepared to deal with the impending circumstances as they arrive. Some of the most pressing facts that the report states are:

-         One in eight people over the age of 65 (13 percent) have Alzheimer’s disease.

-         In 2000, there were an estimated 411,000 new (incident) cases of Alzheimer’s disease. For 2010, that number is projected to be 454,000 new cases; by 2030, 615,000; and by 2050, 959,000.

-         An estimated 3.5 million additional formally trained healthcare providers will be needed by 2030 – more than a 35% increase in the current ratio of providers to the total population – just to maintain current levels of staffing.

The numbers are out there. It is time to take action and start preparing for the future needs of our population. I am proud to be part of an organization that has recognized this issue and is actively doing their part to help. SLR and the BU School of Medicine Alzheimer’s Disease Center continue to work together to develop a state-of-the-art research-based senior living environment to care for individuals with Alzheimer’s and work towards creating a brighter future for those currently affected by the disease and the generations yet to come.

Recently,  Senior Living Residences (SLR), www.SeniorLivngResidences.com,  teamed up with its academic affiliate, the Boston University Alzheimer’s Disease Center (BU ADC), www.bu.edu/alzresearch, to raise more than $10,000 for research, education and care in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.

Our team included faculty, professionals, and volunteers from both SLR and the BU ADC. We joined thousand of other Massachusetts residents taking part in Memory Walk, www.alz.org/memorywalk, a nationwide effort to raise vital funds for care, education, and research.

Memory Walk is the nation’s largest Alzheimer’s event with more than 25,000 teams walking across the country. Across the Commonwealth, nearly 5,000 walk participants raised more than $1.7 million (and counting) to support the Alzheimer’s Association Massachusetts/New Hampshire Chapter, www.alz.org/manh.