Join the cause

The Alzheimer’s Association Colorado Chapter invites you to become an Alzheimer advocate. Join us and speak up for the needs and rights of people with Alzheimer’s disease and their families.

Add your voice to ours — become an advocate today.

Recent events

Local advocacy impacts Coloradoans living with Alzheimer’s

Senate Bill 58 which creates an Alzheimer’s Coordinating Council leading to a statewide plan for Alzheimer’s disease was signed into law by Governor Bill Ritter in May as local advocates looked on. We are very grateful to the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation for providing a $50,000 grant to create the council that will study the issue and make recommendations, as well as to the Colorado Health Institute for agreeing to conduct the research and develop the reports for this groundbreaking public and private partnership. The Governor also signed a bill to renew the Alzheimer’s Association on the State Income Tax form which has brought in well over $120,000 in voluntary contributions for each of the past three years.

Local advocates take the cause to Washington D.C.

A contingent from Colorado attended this year’s Alzheimer’s Association Public Policy Forum in Washington D.C., Bernie Poskus, Alzheimer’s Public Policy Chair, Linda Mitchell, Alzheimer’s Association CEO, Sara Spaulding, VP of Communications and Bill and Twlya Bridgwater. By sharing his personal struggle with Early Onset, Bill Bridgwater, with his wife Twyla, carried a very clear message to legislators about the impact of this disease on families and the business community. While increased funding for Alzheimer’s research at the NIH was tabled due to the priorities of the current administration, our efforts did result in additional support for HR154 to waive the two-year waiting period for Medicare for individuals on Social Security Disability.

November 2007: The City and County Building in downtown Denver was lit in purple for November, and CBS4 hosted a Champions reception to encourage additional sponsorship and support for National Alzheimer’s Awareness month and the duration of the Champions Campaign. Additional activities for the campaign are being planned to include outdoor advertisement, radio and television coverage.

What is an advocate?

Alzheimer advocates play an important role in improving the quality of care and quality of life for people with Alzheimer’s disease and their families by working to improve dementia care and services; improve access to community-based care; improve quality care in residential settings; and expand funding for research and public programs serving people with dementia.

Become an Advocate

As an advocate, you will:

• Receive regular updates about current legislative and public policy issues.
• Stay on top of policy and legislative issues through alerts and updates.
• Make calls or write to legislators to forward public policy priorities to improve quality of life for those living with Alzheimer’s.

Colorado advocacy

Colorado Public Policy Platform

1. Our goal is to work for passage of the Alzheimer’s State Plan in the Colorado General Assembly, and then obtain the Governor’s signature on the Plan. We will do this by identifying sponsors for the bill, providing support and testimony for passage of the bill, and by educating state legislators, the Governor and the public about the State Plan.
   
   
2. We will work towards passage of the tax checkoff provision of Colorado law, allowing the Colorado Department of Revenue to include the Alzheimer’s Association on the Colorado Income Tax Return for three more years, as a designated organization to receive contributions from tax payers who check a box on the return and authorize payment to their selected organization. We will identify sponsors, provide support and testimony for passage of the bill, and secure the Governor’s signature on the bill after its passage. See the checkoff program website for more information.
   
   
3. We will work towards an increase in the Medicaid reimbursement rate for Assisted Living facilities in Colorado. Currently, that rate is below cost for most Colorado Assisted Living facilities, and this results in a limited number of available placements for persons with dementia whose best placement may frequently be in an Assisted Living facility. We will work with other organizations to ask the Colorado legislature and the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (the state agency administering the Medicaid program) to enact an increase in the rate. It is our belief that this will result in an increased availability of assisted living placements to our client population.
   
   
4. We will work towards an expansion of the utility of long term care insurance, by advocating that the Colorado Medicaid program adopt the alternative offered states by Congress in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which allows individuals to shelter more assets from the cost of nursing home care if they have purchased long term care insurance. We will accomplish this by advocating with the Colorado Medical Services Board (the body which passes Medicaid regulations in Colorado) and with staff at the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing.
   
   
5. We will follow up on the recent passage of Project Lifesaver legislation in Colorado by ensuring that individual counties in Colorado utilize the funding offered under that legislation for counties to purchase the necessary equipment to implement the program. We will also insure that those counties have access to the training necessary to make sure that, having purchased the equipment, local law enforcement is able to respond to calls for assistance, promptly locate the individual with Alzheimer’s, and deal with the situation in a way that minimizes the fear and confusion experienced by that person when approached by a police officer.
   
   
6. We will advocate with Colorado’s 2008 Commission (a taskforce appointed by the Governor to address the health care crisis in Colorado by proposing ways to expand access to health care for Colorado residents, and ways to find cost-savings in Colorado’s health care system) to address the long term care needs of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease. We will continue to use all means at our disposal to make sure that the issues of financing for long-term care, and providing access to quality and appropriate methods of caring for person’s with Alzheimer’s, are not ignored in the debate regarding health care created by the 2008 Commission. 

Federal advocacy

• Federal update
• National priorities