Program Description
Fifteen years ago there were approximately 500,000 Americans with Alzheimer's disease. Today there are 10 times as many-almost five million-and the baby boomer generation may be a ticking time bomb. In North Carolina it's estimated that nearly 40,000 people have the disease-and that number is projected to more than double in the next five to seven years. With each passing year, as the first boomers approach the age of 65, America moves closer to the brink of an epidemic. While recent advances in medical research show exciting progress, effective therapies to combat the disease are still out of reach.
UNC-TV presents a groundbreaking evening of programming offering insight, context, help and hope to those affected by Alzheimer's Disease. The evening begins with Focus On...Alzheimer's in North Carolina hosted by UNC-TV's Christine Rogers and broadcast from Duke University's Joseph and Kathleen Bryan Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, one of 27 Alzheimer's research centers in the country. The one-hour broadcast was a live call-in show featuring a panel of experts, including:
- Dr. Donald Schmechel, director of the Duke Alzheimer's Disease Research Center,
- Dr. Kathleen Welsh-Bohmer, associate professor, Duke Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences,
- Steve Morton, director at Southern Assisted Living, the largest provider agency in North Carolina caring for people with Alzheimer's Disease, and
- Bob Dunlap, executive director of the Western North Carolina Alzheimer's Association.
The program will offer resources and address challenges in battling the disease, statewide preparedness for handling anticipated increases in Alzheimer's patients and cutting-edge research underway in North Carolina to help battle the disease.
For those in the audience who are interested in more information about Alzheimer's, The Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimer's explores this frightening disease, the human toll it takes on patients and caregivers, and the latest research in the race to find a cure. In examining this looming social and economic crisis, The Forgetting focuses on stories of families whose lives have been steadily ravaged by Alzheimer's. The follow-up program, Alzheimer's: The Help You Need, hosted by award-winning actor David Hyde Pierce (Frasier), brings together a panel of experts to provide authoritative answers to commonly asked questions and directs viewers to organizations and resources offering help and support. Pierce, who watched both his father and grandfather suffer with Alzheimer's knows firsthand the challenges of dealing with the disease and the sense of personal vulnerability. "With each year that passes, my fear grows-my fear that the disease process that destroyed their memories, and ultimately their lives, has begun developing in my own brain. My fear grows not just for myself, but also for my generation-the 14 million baby boomers who will get Alzheimer's if we don't find a way to beat this dreadful disease." |
