IHoP-NH – In the Hallways of Power-NH
By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
InDepthNH.org’s Paula Tracy talks every week to people from around New Hampshire who come to the State House and Legislative Office Building in Concord about why they do so.
Rick Singer of Manchester was in Concord this week to advocate for Alzheimer’s patients and those suffering with related dementia.
He is a volunteer with the Alzheimer’s Association. He also travels to Washington to advocate for improved care and research as well.
Singer said there are 16 million family members in the United States taking care of 5.7 million dementia patients totaling 18 billion hours of unpaid care.
He said he has seen progress on efforts to address the problem in the eight years he has worked on the issue nationally. Spending on the problem has gone from $450 million to $2.3 billion for this year, according to the National Institutes of Health.
“So big time progress in less than a decade but we will be back in D.C. again this year asking for more,” Singer said.
InDepthNH.org is New Hampshire’s online nonprofit news outlet.