I've been trying to work on this education project, formally and informally, since DH was diagnosed nearly eight years ago. Sometimes I think that trying to educate people about Alzheimer's is just about as successful as trying to convert them to a religion that they aren't interested in.

People want a quick and easy fix, or they want some assurance—however incorrect—that it will never happen to them. They just don't want to hear anything else, because it's too scary. Combine that with the idea that some people have, that dementia is somehow shameful, and sometimes it's like talking to a wall. Most of us have had the experience of trying to talk to friends or family—people who have been caring in the past—about this disease, and having no success at all. That doesn't lead us to have much hope that we can educate a population with no investment at all in this disease.

Well, there may be more of "them" than there are of us, but I hope we are more determined than they are. We have to be, because we are the ones who know the true horror of this disease. And most of us have other family members, like children, that we want to spare ever having this disease. Without us waking up the medical community and the general population, this disease will never get the financial resources and understanding it deserves. And more caregivers and families will suffer while trying to care for their loved ones. So please sign up to be in Joan's army.