Join the cause
The Alzheimer’s Association--Mid South Chapter invites you to become an Alzheimer advocate. Join us and speak up for the needs and rights of people with Alzheimer’s disease and their families.
Add your voice to ours — become an advocate today.
Upcoming events
Join us for Memory Walk
What is an advocate?
Alzheimer advocates play an important role in improving the quality of care and quality of life for people with Alzheimer’s disease and their families by working to improve dementia care and services; improve access to community-based care; improve quality care in residential settings; and expand funding for research and public programs serving people with dementia.
As an advocate, you will:
- Receive regular updates about current legislative and public policy issues.
- Stay on top of policy and legislative issues through alerts and updates.
- Make calls or write to legislators to forward public policy priorities to improve quality of life for those living with Alzheimer’s.
Tennessee advocacy 
Pictured above are Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen visiting with Mid South Chapter CEO Marcia Massengill to the left and East TN Area Director of Outreach Tracey Kendall to the right and surrounded by East Tennessee Advocates.
Each year the Mid South Chapter promotes advocacy through several avenues:
Memory Walk--Each of our fourteen Tennessee walks hosts a public policy table and encourages walkers to sign up to become advocates.
Day on the Hill--Every year, staff and volunteers trek to Nashville to talk to our local representatives and discuss Alzheimer's and push our agenda for that year, whether it be to create a task force or advise them on the needs for more home-based care. On April 17, 2009, visits were made to state senators and legislators asking them to sign the Silver Alert joint house resolution and to support House Bill 117 on Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. We also thanked those legislators who signed the Alzheimer's Disease Task Force Bill, which had almost universal support.
Alabama advocacy
Memory Walk--Our Huntsville, AL walk hosts a public policy table and encourages walkers to sign up to become advocates.
Federal advocacy
Hundreds of advocates at the Alzheimer's Association 21st Annual Public Policy Forum stormed Capitol Hill on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 to urge their legislators to support increasing Alzheimer research funding at the National Institute of Health (NIH), establishing the Alzheimer's Solutions Project Office within the federal government, and phasing out Medicare's two-year waiting period so individuals with Alzheimer's are eligible for Medicare immediately after they receive their determination of disability. The Mid South Chapter was well-represented by Al Wiggins, President of the Chapter Board of Directors; Chanda Crutcher, Board Member; Renee Trent, Alzheimer Advocate Volunteer; Marcia Massengill, Chapter CEO; and Mary Lou Kraatz, Chapter Programs Director.
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