Alzheimer's Association pairs up with New Mexico in US pilot program to raise awareness

New Mexico has paired up with the Alzheimer's Association in a pilot U.S. initiative aimed at raising awareness about a disease that affects several million people across the nation, including family members and friends who often provide countless hours of unpaid care.

The joint campaign — a year in the making — features billboards, digital ads and social media posts. It was unveiled Wednesday, days after authorities confirmed that actor Gene Hackman died at his Santa Fe home of heart disease with complications from Alzheimer’s disease.

Hackman, like the majority of people with Alzheimer’s and related dementias, lived at home. His wife, Betsy Arakawa, was his caregiver but died from hantavirus, a rare, rodent-born disease. Experts believe Hackman, in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's, was unable to seek help.

The goal of the new partnership between the state and the Alzheimer's Association is to spark conversations within families and to educate the public on warning signs and treatments. It also aims to publicize support services for family members and other caregivers.

“That’s kind of the whole point of the campaign — to start talking, to start thinking, to take some action,” said Joey Long, a spokesperson with the state Aging and Long-Term Services Department. “So it's like, maybe they’ve been confused. Well, let’s talk about what that means.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 7 million people are living with the disease in the U.S., where Alzheimer’s is the seventh-leading cause of death. In New Mexico, estimates put the number of people with the disease at 46,000 people, with another 67,000 family members providing care at home within the last year.

Alzheimer's kills more people in the U.S. than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined, according to statistics shared by the Alzheimer's Association, which is helping to fund research projects in dozens of countries around the world.

One of the challenges is that only about half of the people who are living with the disease are ever diagnosed, said Jim Herlihy, a spokesperson for the association's Rocky Mountain region. The number of undiagnosed people is higher in communities of color, he said.

Neurologists say it can take 20 years from the start of the disease taking shape in the brain to when it becomes recognizable and diagnosed, what Herlihy describes as a glacial pace.

“People think of this as either an old person’s disease or something that happens to somebody else,” Herlihy said. “And unless it’s happened in your family and you have seen a loved one decline from this disease, or you have been put into the role of being a caregiver, you don’t realize the impact that this has.”

The nonprofit association published a special report last year detailing the importance of families mapping out a plan for care, acknowledging that it can be a complex maze involving social services, medications and specialists.

The billboards and ads are simple. One of them pictures a caution sign in the road that reads: “Honey, you've been confused.” The messages urge people to talk about it and to visit a website that includes a hotline for those who don't know where to start.

A significant percentage of New Mexico's population is aging, which has spurred officials to find ways to educate and prepare state residents. In addition to the awareness campaign, the state is planning a series of community forums on the subject this spring in rural areas with high rates of the disease.

The Alzheimer's Association is hoping the campaign will expand to other states.