I need to start with a quote that says exactly why we need Claude Gravelle’s National Dementia Strategy Bill to pass in parliament, “Canada has a crisis looming in the number of people afflicted with dementia illnesses. It is a huge cost for healthcare, for budgets and a big challenge to caregivers.”
We read on the site that Alzheimer’ disease is costing us citizens $33 billion dollars per year and the prediction for year 2040 is $293 billion per year. I know that people who are dealing with a family member having the disease will understand these figures, and already feel the exhaustion and costs that affect them, now. What I hope for is for the rest of us, who aren’t directly dealing with the disease yet, to know that it can and likely will affect them and their families.
This disease does not discriminate and can and will affect anyone, and to make sure I drive the point home – this is not an old age disease, it is a disease that can come about even for people in their later adulthood, and it will rob them of years of active life. The numbers are growing and if we don’t start planning to curb and manage Alzheimer’s disease now, we delay finding treatment to delay it or stop it in its tracks, and our healthcare system will be underprepared and overwhelmed very soon.
I ask you to support the Bill to push the strategy along in parliament by downloading and signing the blank petition here. If you’d like to discuss this with me, please call: 778-789-1496.
