The Governor’s Conference on Aging wraps up Thursday, with an emphasis on Alzheimer’s disease, and the effect it’s having on society. Steve Jess reports.Dozens of health care providers and caregivers from across the state are meeting in Helena to discuss a wide range of topics related to older Americans, but roughly half the sessions at the conference deal in some way with the same subject: Alzheimer’s disease. As baby boomers grow older, the number of people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s is growing rapidly. And as Billings Nurse Betty Mullette says, the public health challenge this creates is even greater in a rural, sparsely-populated state like Montana.
“What we need to do is to be able to provide quality care wherever the person is at; the same kind of care that they would get in the urban setting."
The conference concludes Thursday afternoon with a keynote address by Billings Geriatrician Patricia Coon, who will explore ways of creating dementia-friendly communities in Montana.