New Alzheimer’s Disease Research Bill being sent to South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford
South Carolina presently has over 67,000 people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease with another 13,000 expected to be diagnosed by next year.
Unfortunately, patients stricken with Alzheimer’s disease who show aggression, a common characteristic of the disease, are frequently refused a bed in most nursing homes. These denials leave the victims and their families with very little options for long term care.
The Alzheimer’s Disease Registry, which has been in existence since 1988, has relied heavily on statistical and demographic records by culling information from hospital records, Medicaid documents, memory clinic records, mental health records, vital records and long term care evaluations to help understand the disease more fully.
New legislation has been submitted to South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford that would allow the Alzheimer’s Disease Registry to move beyond its limited demographics and statistics data. The bill would allow analysts to have direct contact with families and care givers who live day to day with victims of the disease and directly assess the hardships and lifestyle changes these victims suffer. The new information and knowledge gained from these interviews would then be culminated to be given to families and caregivers of Alzheimer patients and provide vital information on how best to take care of their needs.
Michael Jeffcoat concentrates his nursing home abuse practice in cases involving infections, pressure sores, falls, broken bones, sexual abuse, malnutrition, fraudulent charting and fraudulent billing.
