The Administration for Community Living (ACL) is planning to launch a marketing campaign for the federal government's new Alzheimer's resources website, //www.alzheimers.gov, in early August.
The ACL, an arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), launched the site in May and attracted 15,000 unique visitors to the site within the first 24 hours, ACL officials said Monday during a presentation in Washington, at a meeting of the federal Advisory Council on Alzheimer's Research, Care and Services.
HHS created the ACL in April and made it the umbrella for several existing agencies, including the Administration on Aging, the Office on Disability, and the Administration on Developmental Disabilities.
The Alzheimer's advisory council is overseeing efforts to implement the National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease, a document the council completed in May.
The National Plan includes a recommendation that consumers get more inforation about private long-term care insurance options and a recommendation that consumers get more information about long-term care (LTC) services.
Significant Alzheimer's disease and dementia resources already exist, and public awareness of Alzheimer's is already high, but caregivers seem to need help connecting with the resources that are out there, according to a written version of the ACL presentation prepared by Hunter McKay and Ann Mosher.
ACL has about $4 million in funding to develop, run and promote the Alzheimers.gov site during the current fiscal year and hopes to get $4.2 million for the site for fiscal year 2013, which is set to start Oct. 1.
The site developers have tried to include testimonials from caregivers and others who "use language that is authentic and speaks to target audience."