World Alzheimer’s Month: Why Awareness and Early Planning Matter
Every September, organizations, families, caregivers, and advocates around the world recognize World Alzheimer’s Month, a global campaign dedicated to raising awareness of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, challenging stigma, and encouraging conversations about diagnosis, care, and support.
For families affected by Alzheimer’s disease, those conversations can also extend beyond medical care. A diagnosis may bring questions about future decision-making, finances, long-term care, and how to ensure that an individual’s wishes continue to be respected as circumstances change.
World Alzheimer’s Month is an important reminder that while no family can predict exactly what the future will bring, planning ahead can help them prepare for it.
How World Alzheimer’s Month Began
The global awareness effort began with World Alzheimer’s Day, first observed on September 21, 1994, by Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI). The date marked the organization’s 10th anniversary and created an opportunity to increase worldwide awareness and understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
In 2012, the campaign expanded from a single awareness day to World Alzheimer’s Month. The month-long observance gave Alzheimer and dementia organizations around the world more time to educate their communities, advocate for people living with dementia, support families and caregivers, and address the stigma and misconceptions that can surround a dementia diagnosis.
World Alzheimer’s Day continues to be observed each year on September 21 as part of the broader month-long campaign.
For 2026, Alzheimer’s Disease International is focusing World Alzheimer’s Month on the importance of early diagnosis with the theme, “The Earlier You Know, The More You Can Do: A Dementia Diagnosis Matters.”
Early diagnosis can help individuals and families better understand what they are facing, seek appropriate medical care and support, and begin important conversations about the future. Those conversations can also include legal, financial, and long-term care planning.
Why Early Planning Matters After a Diagnosis
An Alzheimer’s diagnosis does not necessarily mean that a person immediately loses the ability to make decisions for themselves. Particularly in the earlier stages of the disease, an individual may still be able to participate meaningfully in decisions about their future.
However, Alzheimer’s disease is progressive. As the disease advances, an individual may eventually have difficulty managing finances, communicating health care preferences, or making other important decisions.
That is one reason planning early can be so important.
Addressing legal and financial matters while an individual is able to express their wishes can give them a greater voice in their own future. It can also help family members understand those wishes and establish who should have authority to act if assistance is eventually needed.
Planning ahead is not about predicting exactly what will happen. It is about making sure there is a plan when circumstances change.
Legal Documents Families May Want to Review
Every family’s situation is different, but an Alzheimer’s or dementia diagnosis can be an appropriate time to review existing estate planning documents and determine whether they still reflect the individual’s wishes and current circumstances.
Depending on the situation, this review may include:
Durable Power of Attorney: This document can authorize a trusted person to handle financial and other matters on an individual’s behalf.
Health Care Surrogate Designation: Naming a health care surrogate allows an individual to identify someone they trust to make health care decisions if they become unable to make those decisions themselves.
Living Will and Advance Directives: These documents can communicate an individual’s wishes regarding certain medical care and end-of-life decisions.
Will and Trust Documents: Existing estate planning documents should be reviewed to make sure they continue to reflect the individual’s wishes for their assets and beneficiaries.
Other documents and authorizations may also be appropriate depending on the individual’s circumstances.
The important thing is not simply having documents in a drawer. Families should understand what those documents do, whether they are current, and whether the people named in them are still the appropriate choices.
Preparing for Future Long-Term Care Needs
Legal documents are only one part of planning after an Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
As the disease progresses, an individual may require increasing levels of assistance. Care may begin with help from family members or services provided at home and later expand to assisted living, memory care, nursing home care, or other long-term care arrangements.
Those services can create significant financial considerations for families.
Planning ahead provides an opportunity to explore how future care may be paid for, what insurance or benefits may be available, and whether Medicaid planning or other asset protection strategies may be appropriate.
Waiting until a family is facing an immediate care crisis can limit the time available to evaluate options. Earlier planning allows families to make decisions more deliberately and develop a strategy based on the individual’s particular needs, finances, and goals.
Planning Can Help the Entire Family
Alzheimer’s disease affects more than the person who receives the diagnosis. Spouses, adult children, siblings, and other loved ones often become caregivers, advocates, financial managers, and decision-makers as the disease progresses.
Without clear plans in place, families may be left trying to determine what their loved one would have wanted or who has the legal authority to make important decisions.
Having conversations and documents in place ahead of time can provide greater clarity.
Families can discuss who will help manage finances, who will communicate with health care providers, what type of care the individual would prefer, where important documents are located, and how responsibilities may be shared among family members.
These conversations are not always easy, but having them earlier may help reduce uncertainty later.
World Alzheimer’s Month Is an Opportunity to Start the Conversation
World Alzheimer’s Month began as an effort to increase understanding and reduce the stigma surrounding Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. More than three decades after the first World Alzheimer’s Day, that mission continues.
Awareness, however, can also lead to action.
For individuals and families facing an Alzheimer’s or dementia diagnosis, learning about the disease is one part of preparing for the future. Reviewing legal documents, discussing wishes, considering future care needs, and developing a financial and long-term care strategy can be important parts of that process as well.
If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia, the attorneys at Shalloway & Shalloway can help you understand the legal and long-term care planning options available to your family. Taking the time to plan today can help protect your loved one’s wishes and provide greater clarity for the road ahead.