Sue Mudd: Legislation will make it easier to understand, deal with Alzheimer’s

Managing a disease is never easy. HR 1676, the Palliative Care and Hospice Education Act (PCHETA), was reintroduced this spring; if it passes it will further educate healthcare providers on palliative care.

Palliative care focuses on managing, easing and reducing symptoms to persons living with a disease like Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. Along with the common memory loss, a person living with Alzheimer’s can develop other symptoms such as stress, malnutrition, dehydration, pneumonia, anxiety, depression, agitation and verbal and physical aggressiveness. With symptoms such as this it’s valuable to have a healthcare team working together to improve the quality of life and delivery of care to patients. This specially-trained team can include doctors, nurses, nutritionists, clergy and other specialists.

Additionally, palliative care has been shown to help reduce preventable hospitalizations and control healthcare costs. Palliative care can also help give piece of mind that you or a loved one is being cared for in an appropriate and respectable way.

As a volunteer for the Alzheimer’s Association, a friend to someone with early-onset Alzheimer’s, and knowing that caring for someone with Alzheimer’s or any disease is not simple, I thank Rep. Jeff Denham for co-sponsoring PCHETA.

This story was originally published August 2, 2017 at 11:38 AM with the headline "Sue Mudd: Legislation will make it easier to understand, deal with Alzheimer’s."