Law Authored by Senator Collins Provides Maine with $200,000 to Combat Alzheimer’s Disease

Washington, D.C. — The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC) received a $200,000 grant to fight Alzheimer’s through a new law authored by U.S. Senator Susan Collins, the Chairman of the Aging Committee and a founder and Co-Chair of the Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer’s Disease.  The funding will be used to expand support services for people with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Maine is among the first 15 public health entities nationally to receive funding through this new program Senator Collins created.

In 2018, Congress passed and the President signed into law Senator Collins’ Building Our Largest Dementia (BOLD) Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act.  The BOLD Act authorizes the U.S. CDC to allocate up to $20 million per year for five years to local entities that provide dementia and Alzheimer’s disease care and support and the funding can be renewed annually through 2023.  The activities outlined in the BOLD Act are designed to create a national public health infrastructure with a focus on issues such as increasing early detection and diagnosis, risk reduction, prevention of avoidable hospitalizations, and supporting dementia caregiving.

“Alzheimer’s disease is one of the greatest and most under-recognized public health threats of our time.  Millions of Americans and thousands of Mainers are living with this disease, and that number is soaring as our overall population grows older and people live longer,” said Senator Collins.  “I am pleased that Maine was one of the first states to receive funding through the BOLD Act that I authored, which will support an expansion of our modern infrastructure for the prevention, treatment, and care of Alzheimer’s and related dementias.”

Maine’s initial award is $200,000, which can be renewed annually through 2023.  With this funding, the Maine CDC will collaborate with governmental and nongovernmental partners to build Maine’s Alzheimer’s Prevention Program based on the Healthy Brain Initiative Road Map and advance Maine’s efforts as a designated Age Friendly State.  Maine has led the country for years in the number of towns and counties that have joined the AARP Network of Age-Friendly States and Communities.

Approximately 5.5 million Americans—and 28,000 Mainers—are living with Alzheimer’s.  This disease costs the United States more than $277 billion per year, including $186 billion in costs to Medicare and Medicaid.  Without further action, the number of Americans with Alzheimer’s is expected to triple to as many as 14 million by 2050, costing the nation more than $1.1 trillion per year. 

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