Referring to Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases as, “the new moon,” best-selling writer, award-winning journalist, activist and California’s First Lady, Maria Shriver, is now a trailblazer for Alzheimer’s advocacy. Saying, “If President Kennedy could launch a space program to explore space and land a man on the moon, we should be launching a program, to launch the clues, the answers, to the human brain,” Shrive approaches the subject of Alzheimer’s as one of America’s greatest challenges.
Shriver first approached her capacity as a prominent First Lady, by transforming the position into a platform capable of making a powerful difference, most particularly in the lives of women. After her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease seven years ago, Shriver wrote the acclaimed children’s book, “What’s Happening to Grandpa?” as a way to help her process her feelings and to help children understand the puzzling aspects of Alzheimer’s.
After the success of that book, Shriver produced a four-part HBO documentary called “The Alzheimer’s Project,” thus calling the disease out from what she termed the “dark room and into the living room.” In 2009, she testified before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging and offered advice to families and caregivers affected by Alzheimer’s.
In 2003, Shriver created a number of programs in California under the name of WE and held its first Conference (the California Governor & First Lady’s Conference on Women), now one of the world’s most influential women’s meetings, with more than 30,000 attendees and more than 100 world opinion leaders.
This year’s Conference is scheduled in Long Beach, California on October 24 to 26, and will feature an impressive and eclectic slate of journalists, entertainers and leaders.
The focus of this year’s Conference on Alzheimer’s reflects her belief that “this disease needs more money, more conversation, more adjustments by all of our leading instutions than perhaps any other in American life.” The disease disproportionately affects women “not just as the person living with the disease, but women are the primary caretakers of the elder generation.” As both caregivers and patients, she says, “we need help! We need help from our businesses where we work, with flex hours. We need help from our government, which is the largest employer in the nation. We need to have a conversation and ask, ‘where are our priorities?’”
For more information on the March on Alzheimer’s and to register online, click here.
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