Health: Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement
“Women are at the epicenter of the Alzheimer’s crisis. That’s why we must be at the heart of the solution.”
Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement focuses on four areas: Research, Education, Prevention,
and Advocacy. (PHOTO COURTESY OF WOMEN’S ALZHEIMER’S MOVEMENT)
Those are the words of Maria Shriver, perhaps the most recognizable name in Alzheimer’s disease advocacy.
Like so many others who find strength in activism, Shriver’s motivation was intensely personal: Her father, Robert Sargent Shriver Jr., died in 2011 at the age of 95 after an eight-year decline due to Alzheimer’s.
Shriver, an acclaimed journalist, immersed herself in learning all she could about the mind-robbing disease. She discovered something curious and frightening.
Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia disproportionately affect women as both patient and caregiver. Of the more than 6 million Americans who have been diagnosed, 4 million are women. Of the caregivers who devote more than 40 hours a week taking care of an Alzheimer’s patient, 73 percent are women.
For Shriver, that realization came with action. She founded the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to find out why Alzheimer’s targets women.
“I will do everything I can to fight this disease, and I will never stop fighting until it’s defeated,” Shriver says.
Join the movement, make donations and learn about the disease at thewomensalzheimersmovement.org
