Join the cause
The Alzheimer’s Association--Greater Dallas Chapter invites you to become an Alzheimer advocate. Join us and speak up for the needs and rights of people with Alzheimer’s disease and their families.
Add your voice to ours — become an advocate today.
Upcoming events
No new events at this time. Please check back soon.
What is an advocate?
Alzheimer advocates play an important role in improving the quality of care and quality of life for people with Alzheimer’s disease and their families by working to improve dementia care and services; improve access to community-based care; improve quality care in residential settings; and expand funding for research and public programs serving people with dementia.
As an advocate, you will:
- Receive regular updates about current legislative and public policy issues.
- Stay on top of policy and legislative issues through alerts and updates.
- Make calls or write to legislators to forward public policy priorities to improve quality of life for those living with Alzheimer’s.
Texas advocacy
The Alzheimer's Association Greater Dallas Chapter is currently working closely together with other Texas Chapters to collaborate on state issues relevant to our constituent concerns. The Texas Alzheimer's Collaborative was formed for this purpose.
On May 1, 2007, the Texas State Legislature unanimously passed the Silver Alert System, which issues a statewide notice of a missing senior citizen. Silver Alert is modeled after the Amber Alert System and will use the same infrastructure currently used by state and local law enforcement. The Silver Alert System id designed to inform the public when older people with mental impairments, such as Alzheimer's disease, go missing. State Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, one of the bill's authors, became interested in such a system after the disappearance of an eldersly El Paso man revealed no effective way of issuing an alert. The Silver Alert System will assist state and local law enforcement to locate the approximately 900 senior citizens who are reported missing statewide each year. Once signed by Governor Perry, the bill will go into effect September 1, 2007. This new system will aid in the efforts of the Alzheimer's Association's Safe Return program which is currently used by nearly 7,500 enrollees in Texas.
The Alzheimer's Association is currently working with the Texas State Legislature to increase training requirements for Assisted Living staff. If passed, all caregivers at assisted living communities would be required to have 8 hours of training about caring for patients with dementia. It would also require an additional 8 hours of continued training within the first year of employment at assisted living facilities. Currently, only 1 hour of dementia training is required.
We work collaboratively with the Texas Silver-Haired Legislature, TSAC and TAHSA on other important legislative issues.
Federal advocacy
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