I write on behalf of Jamie Broder, Lee Broder, Barbara Footer, Bill Jenks, Jonathan Wright and Shantia Wright to advise Mainers of LD 1677, an Act to Establish the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias Prevention and Support Program, which is up for legislative vote this week. Alzheimer’s disease affects at least 30,000 Mainers, their families, friends and caregivers who are directly affected by the disease.

Alzheimer’s and related dementias are a public health problem that requires a permanent and strategic response just as public health programs exist for cancer and asthma under Maine law. Maine is the only state in New England without such a permanent infrastructure. Rep. Dan Shagoury, D-Hallowell, has introduced LD 1677 with bipartisan support to establish a public health program for dementia that would promote risk reduction, early diagnosis and better care for Alzheimer’s patients and their families. It creates an independent group of partners — the Healthy Brain Initiative Council — to advise the Maine CDC and help carry out the important goals of the program.

Maine’s Alzheimer’s services are created only through federal support, but there are no guarantees that this support will be honored or renewed. Maine must protect its Alzheimer’s patients and families by creating the same permanent infrastructure.

This letter comes from multiple families, each with a member who has some degree of impairment due directly to Alzheimer’s or related dementia and their caregivers. We are all engaged with newly available treatments or are participants in clinical trials. We urgently ask everyone to join us in this fight.

Marshall Cohen
Portland

Correction (May 6, 2025): A previous version of this letter misspelled the names of Jamie Broder and Lee Broder.