This is a part of World Alzheimer’s Month and the Alzheimer’s Association is asking you to help raise awareness by changing your Facebook profile picture.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer’s disease is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States and the 5th leading cause of death for those aged 65 and older. Learn more here.
And it’s not just those with the disease who suffer, nearly 15 million families and friends provided care for those with Alzheimer’s and other dementias last year.
Televangelist Pat Robertson has been in the news again recently, this time making some controversial and disturbing comments about Alzheimer’s. Robertson basically said that a man who is married to a wife with Alzheimer’s and is dating should go ahead and divorce the wife. He added that the man should provdie for custodial care for the wife and that Alzheimer’s is a “kind of death”
The outcry was predictable. Even his co-host reminded him that marriage was in “sickness and in health, for better and for worse.”
I suppose in once sense Robertson was saying if you’re going to cheat on your incapacitated spouse, go ahead and divorce her. But as a minister of the gospel his admonition should have stopped with “don’t cheat on your spouse.”
Newt Gingrich was unavailable for comment.
Raise some Alzheimer’s awareness today.