Should doctors and hospitals treat caregiving as an obvious health risk?
Probably.
The long-term care (LTC) subcommittee at the Advisory Council on Alzheimer's Research, Care and Services has given that assessment in a package of recommendations made to the council.
Council members discussed the recommendations earlier this week at a meeting in Washington.
Congress included the law that created the advisory council in the National Alzheimer's Project Act of 2011 (NAPA). The council is supposed to help its parent, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) come up with a plan for preventing and curing Alzheimer's by 2025.
The council also is supposed to come up for strategies for improving support for people with dementia and their relatives.
Dealing with the problems by simply making Alzheimer's go away, now, is not a realistic option, council members acknowledged.
"A prevention or cure is not imminent," members of the council's clinical care subcommittee said in a presentation prepared for the council meeting.