Following the enactment of S.B. 24 in 2019, Ohio established the Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementias Task Force to create Ohio’s first State Alzheimer’s Plan. The Task Force included advocates, caregivers, family members, health care professionals, and researchers, and was charged with conducting a needs assessment and examining the opportunities around public health, early detection and diagnosis, workforce, home and community-based services, and quality of care. After community listening sessions and virtual forums across the state, the Task Force released a Preliminary Findings Summary in September 2021, and in June 2024, the Ohio Department of Aging released the Action Plan on Alzheimer’s and Other Dementias, which aims to increase public awareness, improve access to quality care, train a dementia-capable workforce, advance dementia research and data innovation, and optimize available funding and financial supports for people living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias.

Establish a Statewide Alzheimer’s Public Awareness Campaign 

236,000 Ohioans are living with Alzheimer’s, but as many as half of them are not formally diagnosed. It is critical that residents across the state understand the importance of early detection and diagnosis. Early intervention can provide individuals living with Alzheimer’s access to treatments to slow disease progression and more time to plan for the future, adopt lifestyle changes, participate in clinical trials, and live more fully with a higher quality of life for as long as possible. The Alzheimer’s Association is calling on state lawmakers to allocate $500,000 for the establishment of a statewide public awareness campaign on Alzheimer’s and other dementia, with a particular focus on underrepresented urban and rural populations who are disproportionately affected by the disease.