Alzheimer’s

“A Policy That Puts the Elderly at Risk” (Commentary, Nov. 29) presented a strong case for changing our health care system for the elderly. As part of an organization which provides services to persons with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, I talk to families every day who have been given a diagnosis of this devastating illness, or worse, no answer at all for their loved one’s symptoms. The diagnosis is usually given by a family practitioner or internist without the proper referral to a neurologist for appropriate testing.

Many of these patients are part of the HMO system, which apparently believes it is better to write off a person with Alzheimer’s, instead of finding out if he or she has something curable, such as a thyroid problem, drug interaction, depression or stroke. Even if the diagnosis turns out to be Alzheimer’s disease, families deserve to be given the whole story so that they may make decisions in the best interest of the person they love. A health system that does any less is no health system at all.

JEAN RUECKER

Alzheimer’s Assn. of Ventura County, Oxnard