After two years of work, a Montana group has created a plan to counter what it calls the nation’s next epidemic: Alzheimer’s disease.

“This disease is not slowing down,” said Lynn Mullowney, the executive director of the Montana Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. “It’s the only disease in top ten taking lives with no way to treat it or prevent it.”

Mullowney is one of the representatives from the Montana Alzheimer’s and Dementia Workgroup, which announced the Montana Alzheimer’s State Plan on Monday.

Montana has been one of five states without a comprehensive response to the disease, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

There are an estimated 19,000 people in Montana living with Alzheimer’s and 49,000 people caring for them. That means nearly 7 percent of the state’s population comes into contact with the disease every day.

Within the next 10 years, the number of Montanans and families dealing with the challenges of Alzheimer’s is expected to rise by 42 percent.

The 40-member work group is a combination of health advocates and officials, including the Alzheimer’s Association, assisted living and long-term care facilities, the Department of Public Health and Human Services and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Mullowney said the plan aims to raise public awareness of Alzheimer’s, expand research efforts and ensure there are enough health care workers to meet the needs of a growing population of people facing dementia-related diseases.

She said these steps are especially important in a state where people can be separated from concentrated care by hundreds of miles.

“A family in the Flathead Valley lost their father to Alzheimer’s a year ago,” Mullowney said.

She said the resources and money needed to treat the man were out of reach. When his disease became unmanageable in community-based services, their father had to live in a mental health hospital, where he eventually died.

While the plan would be the state’s first step in unifying efforts to respond to the disease, it doesn’t directly require state action or influence state policy.

However, the Children, Families, Health and Human Services Interim Committee is working to draft four bills to provide funding that fills in the gaps the state plan can’t.

The bills seek to create the position of a statewide Alzheimer’s facilitator, pull $1.5 million from the state’s general fund for Area Agencies on Aging, create a grant program for respite care and increase families’ financial support when battling the disease.

Members of the work group met with the committee on Monday to advocate for the drafts, which are being molded for the 2017 session.

Laurie Miller, a manager at ResCare Homecare, described a couple in Western Montana she recently visited.

The wife in her 70s had been unfavorably discharged from two different nursing homes after her dementia went beyond the care facility’s services. The family didn’t qualify for a Medicaid-supported waiver that would have allowed community-based services to avoid institutional care.

“So her husband went home without care or assistance,” Miller said. “He’s 79, and he’s mowing lawns and doing chores in the community to make enough for caregivers to come to their home.”

She said it was a scene she had witnessed throughout the state.

“As an agency we, and as a person, I, really really want to support the proposed bills out there,” Miller said. “These families are hurting and they need help, they’re struggling on a daily basis and [those resources are] just not there.”

The committee will continue to review the bills for the 2017 legislative session.

Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at [email protected].

However, the Children, Families, Health and Human Services Interim Committee is working to draft four bills to provide funding that fills in the gaps the state plan can’t.

The bills seek to create the position of a statewide Alzheimer’s facilitator, pull $1.5 million from the state’s general fund for Area Agencies on Aging, create a grant program for respite care and increase families’ financial support when battling the disease.

Members of the work group met with the committee on Monday to advocate for the drafts, which are being molded for the 2017 session.

Laurie Miller, a manager at ResCare Homecare, described a couple in Western Montana she recently visited.

The wife in her 70s had been unfavorably discharged from two different nursing homes after her dementia went beyond the care facility’s services. The family didn’t qualify for a Medicaid-supported waiver that would have allowed community-based services to avoid institutional care.

“So her husband went home without care or assistance,” Miller said. “He’s 79, and he’s mowing lawns and doing chores in the community to make enough for caregivers to come to their home.”

She said it was a scene she had witnessed throughout the state.

“As an agency we, and as a person, I really really want to support the proposed bills out there,” Miller said. “These families are hurting and they need help, they’re struggling on a daily basis and [those resources are] just not there.”

The committee will continue to review the bills for the 2017 legislative session.

Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at [email protected].