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Committee hears bill to establish state dementia response program and coordinator
Summary
House Bill 1433 would create a dementia response program in the Department of Health and Human Services, funded at $250,000 per biennium and including one full‑time coordinator. Sponsors and advocates said the program would implement the state Alzheimer’s plan, coordinate outreach, collect data and run public‑awareness and risk‑reduction efforts;
Representative Gretchen Dobrevich told the committee that House Bill 1433 would establish a dementia response program in the Department of Health and Human Services and fund a state dementia coordinator. “This program would implement North Dakota's state Alzheimer's plan, update the plan every three years, and would include convening a work group” of people with dementia, caregivers and relevant providers, she said.
Dobrevich told members the bill has a fiscal note of $250,000 per biennium, which would cover development and implementation and one full‑time employee. She said North Dakota’s existing Dementia Care Services Program provides education, care consultation and resource referral but that the proposed response program would expand implementation, data collection and statewide public‑awareness work to reduce stigma, encourage risk reduction activities and promote early detection and treatment.
Witnesses from the Alzheimer’s Association, guardianship services and search‑and‑rescue advocates supported the bill. Melanie Gaby, North Dakota public‑policy director for the Alzheimer’s Association, described shifts in diagnosis and diagnosis timing and said the state plan was “robust” but largely unimplemented in recent years; she called for renewed emphasis on prevention, risk reduction and data collection. “There are still no cures for Alzheimer's disease or related dementias, but there are now two FDA‑approved treatments that alter the actual biology of the disease, but it has to be when Alzheimer's is in the early stages,” she told the committee, and argued earlier diagnosis makes treatment more effective.
Scott Bernstein, executive director of Guardian and Protective Services, said coordinated services and public education improve outcomes for people with dementia and caregivers, and urged support for the bill. Travis Bateman, representing Badlands Search and Rescue, requested the bill’s stakeholder group add a representative who specializes in search‑and‑rescue procedures for missing persons with dementia and cited research on lost‑person behavior: “Three quarters of people with dementia who are lost long enough to be reported missing are found within a mile and a half of their original locations,” he said, and noted survival rates drop sharply after several days.
Committee members asked whether the new program should be folded into the existing Dementia Care Services Program; the sponsor said the current program is administratively housed in Aging Services while the proposed response program would be in Public Health/Chronic Disease, and stakeholders should discuss whether consolidation is feasible. Members also suggested explicitly including long‑term‑care representation on the program work group; Dobrevich agreed with that suggestion.
No formal committee vote occurred during the hearing; the committee recessed after completing testimony and discussion.
