Dear Lucas:
Our advocates are awesome. Hundreds of you have picked up the phones or sent emails to Albany to defend funding for Alzheimer's caregivers. But, there is still work to be done.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo's move to cancel specific funding for all healthcare causes, including Alzheimer's disease presents a daunting task in the days ahead. We need our advocates to fight his plan. This plan would pool together funds normally distributed to organizations like the Alzheimer's Association, cut $40 million off the top, and force agencies to compete against one another for the remaining dollars. This means that organizations like ours will have to spend more time fighting for funding when that time would be better spent providing support services -- such as our 24-hour helpline, care consultations, support groups and education -- to the nearly 1 million Alzheimer caregivers in New York.
Your Assemblymember is Richard Gottfried. As a member of the Assembly Health Committee, he is in a unique position to aid the cause. Ask him to:
- Restore funding for Alzheimer's disease initiatives that support the delivery of community based services
- Increase AlzCAP (Alzheimer's Community Assistance Program) funding to $5 million
Services provided by the Alzheimer's Association through AlzCAP save New York state billions of dollars each year in Medicaid spending by keeping people with the disease at home and out of long-term care facilities.
Many of you have either taken advantage of the services we provide orknow someone who has. This is your chance to tell Asmblymbr. Gottfried how important these services are to the community. After responding to the alert, take one extra step by clicking the Tell-A-Friend link and sharing it with your friends.
Sincerely,
Catherine James and Elaine Sproat
Co-Chairs
Coalition of New York State Alzheimer's Association Chapters, Inc.