NAPA Becomes Law

Following the unanimous approval of Congress earlier this month, and the thousands of e-mails and messages advocates sent to the White House last week, President Obama signed the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA) into law. Once implemented, NAPA will ensure our nation has what Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius calls an “aggressive and coordinated national strategy” to confront the present and rapidly escalating Alzheimer crisis.

Today is a day to celebrate. This is a victory for the 5.3 million people who live with Alzheimer’s in this country and the nearly 11 million caregivers. It is a victory for you and more than 300,000 other advocates who stood up and demanded that our nation’s leaders create a plan for combating this disease. The journey to take NAPA from concept to law of the land is a victory for all of us.

Tomorrow we will return to the hard but rewarding work that lies ahead. NAPA is a milestone and a very important step forward, but it is not the destination. Our destination is a world without Alzheimer’s and we can only arrive there through therapies that stop this disease and improved care and support for those contending with it. Rest assured that we will work tirelessly to maintain the momentum evident today. We will work to ensure NAPA is implemented effectively so that it lives up to its promise, and we will work to advance our other legislative priorities for 2011, including a major, immediate increase in research funding.

As you know, there is no time to waste.

-Harry Johns, President and CEO, Alzheimer’s Association

A brief description of NAPA (National Alzheimer’s Project Act)
NAPA is the largest legislative victory in many years for the Alzheimer cause. Over the last several years, the Alzheimer’s Association has been the leading voice in urging Congress and the White House to pass the National Alzheimer’s Project Act. NAPA will create a coordinated national plan to overcome the Alzheimer crisis and will ensure the coordination and evaluation of all national efforts in Alzheimer research, clinical care, institutional, and home and community-based programs and their outcomes. Alzheimer’s advocates were instrumental in moving NAPA through Congress. More than 50,000 e-mails, nearly 10,000 phone calls and more than 1,000 meetings by the Alzheimer’s Association and its advocates led us to the historic legislative victory for the Alzheimer community.

Source: alz.org