This month, which is Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting with Samantha Warren of Rep. Bruce Poliquin’s office. I thanked her for his participation in the 2015 Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Bangor and invited both of them to this year’s Oct. 15 walk.

But I was curious, and still am, as to why the congressman has not supported the federal HOPE (Health Outcomes, Planning and Education) for Alzheimer’s Act, which provides support and funds for doctors to help with planning and direction in a patient’s first year of diagnosis.

Alzheimer’s is the country’s most expensive disease. The rest of the Maine delegation, both Republican and Democratic, is on board, realizing the financial savings the bill will have on the country’s health care system.

More importantly, in that first year after diagnosis, families are sometimes lost as to what to do. I was diagnosed two years ago and made so many dumb decisions that I almost wrecked my family. Advice was close at hand (from the Alzheimer’s Association, for example), but I could not see the forest through the trees.

So, shame on Rep. Poliquin. The HOPE for Alzheimer’s Act makes sense all around. We are counting on him. Perhaps we can hear his support of the HOPE for Alzheimer’s Act on Oct. 15 in Bangor.

Dallas Dixon

Gouldsboro

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