This book focuses on the public policy and political dimensions of Alzheimer's Disease and other dementias (AD/D) in the United States, with coverage of the global dimensions and relevant examples from other countries. Starting off with a discussion on the characteristics of AD/D and competing theories of their causes, their human and financial costs, and the increasing burden they place on all societies as populations age, the book examines in detail the range of policy issues they raise. These include funding policies, payment policy and regulatory functions, long-term services and support (LTCS), public health and prevention policies.
The book analyses the big business surrounding AD/D and shows that the strong public fear of developing dementia heightens the likelihood of exploitation of vulnerable people looking for a technological fix. It examines both informal and formal caregivers and the heavy burden placed on families, primarily women, and recent policy attempts to strengthen LTCS. It also examines the latest evidence of potential risk-reduction and prevention strategies and the difficult issues surrounding advance directives, assisted suicide, and definitions of death that increasingly face policy makers. It concludes by analyzing the policy implications on possible technological scenarios.

About the Author: Robert H. Blank, PhD, (University of Maryland) is an adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, and a research scholar at New College Florida. He has been a frequent guest professor at Aarhus University in Denmark and at National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan. His previous academic positions include Chair of Public Policy at Brunel University in West London, Professor and Associate Director of the Program for Biosocial Research at Northern Illinois University, and Chair of Political Science at the University of Idaho. He has held residential fellowships at Vanderbilt University, Stanford University, Indiana University and the Medical University of South Carolina, and Fulbright Lectureships in Taiwan (1976-77 and 2007) and New Zealand (1984). He has taught, lectured and written widely in the areas of comparative health policy, medical technology assessment, genetic and reproductive policy, and neuroscience policy. Among the many books he has written are Rationing Medicine, Regulating Reproduction, Brain Policy, The Price of Life, Biology and Political Science, Comparative Health Policy, 1st -5th eds., End of Life Decision Making: A Comparative Study, Condition Critical, Governing Home Care, Intervention in the Brain: Politics and Policy, and Cognitive Enhancement. He was co-editor of The Palgrave International Handbook of Healthcare Policy and Governance.