The United States Senate Special Committee on Aging on April 24 held a hearing on "The National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease: Are We On Track to 2025?" that emphasized the need for greater funding for Alzheimer's disease in order to bring it more in line with other chronic diseases.

Witnesses included the daughter and caregiver of Glen Campbell, the legendary musician who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2011. In emotional testimony presented with her father at her side, Ashley Campbell exclaimed that Alzheimer's disease "robs one of life while they are still living."

She called on Congress to support the President's fiscal year 2014 budget request for $100 million in increased funding to help advance implementation of the "National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease."

Other panelists discussed the implementation of the national plan and the impact of the disease on the nation's economy.  Click here to read witnesses' written testimony. 

In a statement released just prior to the hearing, Carol Steinberg, the Alzheimer's Foundation of America's acting CEO, called on Congress to push Alzheimer's disease funding "to the next level."

And in a related development, officials at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) confirmed that the NIH director, Francis Collins, M.D., will be dedicating an additional $40 million for Alzheimer's disease research from his fiscal year 2013 director's discretionary budget

New Poll: Aging Americans Are in Denial About Long-Term Care Needs

  A new survey of adults aged 40 and older, conducted by the Associated Press NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, reveals some stunning insights regarding Americans' preparedness - or lack thereof - to deal with future long-term care needs.

Among the findings, three in 10 people surveyed prefer not to think about aging at all and about two-thirds have done little to nothing to plan for long-term care in the future. The majority indicated that they would expect family to take on caregiving duties, although six out of 10 have yet to broach that conversation with family members.

Asked what's on their minds as they get older, the respondents said the greatest concerns are losing independence, and losing their memory and mental abilities.

AFA offers a variety of strategies and tips to help prepare for long-term care, including legal and financial planning.

Alzheimer's Foundation of America Announces College Scholarship Winner, Runners-Up

  AFA today announced the winner and runners-up in its 2013 AFA Teens for Alzheimer's Disease Awareness College Scholarship competition. The grand prize - a $5,000 scholarship - was awarded to Jadend Russell-Johnson, 18, of Falmouth, Maine.

In her moving essay, Russell-Johnson powerfully entwined some of her happiest memories of dancing with her adoptive father with the life lessons she learned as his Alzheimer's disease progressed: acceptance, compassion, patience, humor, appreciation, respect, and support. Sadly, Russell-Johnson was notified that she won only a couple of weeks after her father, David Perry Johnson, 72, had passed away.

Runners-up Marina Renton, of Andover, Mass., and Audrey Chou, of Northbrook, Ill., were awarded scholarships of $500 and $250, respectively.

This year, nearly 2,000 college-bound teens from across the country competed in the annual contest. They poured their hearts out in very personal essays that reflected how Alzheimer's disease has impacted their lives.

 Read the winning essays. 

• National Alzheimer's Plan Advisory Council to Meet April 29 - The Advisory Council on Alzheimer's Research, Care, and Services, advising on the "National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease," will meet on April 29 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (ET) in Washington, DC. The meeting will be Webcast live.

• Give Your Brain a Spring Shape-Up - Looking for a few ideas to help keep your brain in shape this spring? The editors at Men's Health magazine compiled this list of tips - from eating to exercise to music - to help improve sharpness.

• Teleconference to Explore Behavioral Problems - AFA's next Care Connection free teleconference for family and professional caregivers will take place on May 9 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. (ET). Kelly O'Shea Carney, Ph.D., CMC, executive director, Phoebe Center for Excellence in Dementia Care, Phoebe Ministries, Allentown, PA, will present tips to help manage behavioral problems in the home. Call 877-232-2992 and use guest identification number: 271004#.

• Nurses Fight for Minimum Staffing Requirements - Several states are currently considering legislation to ensure that hospitals have a minimum number of nurses on staff at all times. The proposals are stirring controversy, with many hospital administrators opposing this idea and the financial burden it would cause, while many lawmakers, nurses and nursing unions are urging a fixed nurse-to-patient ratio.

News Updates

• Diagnostics Get "Designer" Treatment - Employing computer-aided drug discovery, an Ohio State University molecular biochemist and molecular imaging chemist are developing an imaging chemical - a "designer tracer" - that they hope will pave the way to earlier diagnosis and better treatment of Alzheimer's disease and other conditions associated with the build-up of tangled tau proteins in the brain. Read more... 

• Family History of Alzheimer's Disease Associated with Abnormal Brain Pathology - A new study from researchers at Duke University has found that people whose immediate family members have Alzheimer's disease are twice as likely to develop the silent accumulation of brain plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease. Read more... 

• Experimental ALS Trial Could Have Implications for Alzheimer's Disease - An experimental treatment for ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease), in which a mutated gene was effectively shut down, has passed a clinical trial for safety. The research suggests that a similar approach may be beneficial in treating other conditions, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases. Read more... 

• When is it OK to Lie? - Lying seems to be okay if it makes  

  a loved one feel better, according to the results of a recent

  survey of family caregivers. Of the 73 percent of participants who admitted to lying to family members they are caring for, about half believed the falsehood was for the person's own good or that it made the caregiver's life easier. Read more...