MOULTRIE — June is Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month, a time dedicated to increasing public awareness of Alzheimer’s disease.

Colquitt County is home to more than 4,000 senior citizens with 12 assisted living facilities and four nursing homes. But it isn’t enough to help stop the growing Alzheimer’s problem.

Kimberly Blackstock, the volunteer coordinator for Regency Hospice and a volunteer with Alzheimer’s Association, says that she has seen first-hand the damage Alzheimer’s can do.

“I go into a patient’s home and see what Alzheimer’s does to the family,” said Blackstock. “I also see the fatigue, the worry, the stress and the guilt of the caregiver.”

Blackstock began her volunteer work with the Alzheimer’s Association in 2008 and has been a strong advocate for the association.

Her work there led her to a trip to Washington, D.C for the AIM (Alzheimer’s Impact Movement) Advocacy Forum, where she and other members of the Alzheimer’s Association asked for funding for two critical bills that will help in the battle against Alzheimer’s.

The Building Our Largest Dementia (BOLD) Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act would allow the establishment of Alzheimer centers, and it would also fund state, local and tribal public health departments to increase early detections.

The financial numbers of Alzheimer’s include: Medicaid costs for people with the disease rounded up to $1.03 billion in Georgia for 2017 and is expected to shoot up almost 50 percent in the coming years. Alzheimer’s is the most expensive disease in America costing $259 billion in 2017.

The state of Georgia has 140,000 people living with Alzheimer’s, and by the year 2025 that number is expected to increase by 35 percent.

“The worst case scenario is that government is going to be $1.1 trillion in debt if Alzheimer’s continues to grow,” said Blackstock. “The government is more than likely going to go bankrupt.

The dates for the Walk to End Alzheimer’s Tifton’s Walk is Oct. 27 and Albany’s is Oct. 20.

For more information about Alzheimer’s, call the Alzheimer’s Association at 1-800-272-3900.