September carries a long list of designations intended to focus public attention on difficult issues.
It is National Suicide Prevention Month, National Recovery Month, Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, National Preparedness Month, and Self-Care Awareness Month. It also includes observances focused on sickle cell disease, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, and Hispanic heritage.
Every one of those issues is significant. Each probably touches close to home for someone we know and care about.
September is also World Alzheimer’s Month, an international campaign to increase awareness of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, challenge the stigma surrounding them, and call attention to the needs of people living with cognitive decline and those who care for them. World Alzheimer’s Day is observed Sept. 21.
The official theme for World Alzheimer’s Month 2026 is “The Earlier You Know, The More You Can Do: A Dementia Diagnosis Matters.”
For the past three Septembers, the Estes Valley Voice has given special attention to Alzheimer’s and dementia. We will continue that commitment this month because these diseases are not distant abstractions. They are part of life in the Estes Valley — inside homes, between spouses, across generations and among friends who gradually find their relationships changing.
The numbers convey the scale of the crisis, but they cannot fully describe its emotional weight.
An estimated 57 million people worldwide were living with dementia in 2021, according to the World Health Organization. Nearly 10 million new cases develop each year. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, accounting for an estimated 60% to 70% of cases. Dementia is also the seventh-leading cause of death worldwide and a major cause of disability and dependency among older adults.
In the United States, an estimated 7.4 million people age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s in 2026. That represents about 1 in 9 Americans in that age group. Nearly three-quarters are 75 or older, and almost two-thirds are women.
Without a breakthrough that can prevent or cure the disease, the number of Americans age 65 and older living with Alzheimer’s could reach 13.8 million by 2060.
The impact reaches well beyond those who receive a diagnosis. Nearly 13 million Americans provide unpaid care for a relative or friend living with dementia. The estimated value of that care is more than $446 billion annually.
In Colorado, about 91,000 people age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s. An estimated 211,000 family caregivers provide 336 million hours of unpaid care each year, valued at approximately $9.6 billion.
The Estes Valley is not immune. More than 40% of our community’s population is age 60 or older, making Estes Park Colorado’s second “oldest” community among places with more than 1,000 residents.
In a rural mountain community of almost 12,000 people, that represents approximately 4,800 residents aged 60 and older. Based on the community’s older population and national prevalence rates, local advocates have estimated that about 350 Estes Valley residents may be living with dementia.
A disease that changes entire families
Dementia is an umbrella term for conditions that impair memory, reasoning, communication, and a person’s ability to manage everyday life. Alzheimer’s is the most common cause, but other forms include vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia, frontotemporal dementia and mixed dementia.
The disease is often described in medical terms — plaques, proteins, cognitive impairment and neurological decline. Families experience it in more personal ways.
It is the forgotten appointment, the question asked repeatedly and the familiar road that suddenly seems unfamiliar. It is a spouse assuming responsibility for medications, meals, transportation, finances and personal care. It is an adult child wondering whether a parent can continue living alone. It is grief that begins long before death.
In a 2024 personal essay, I shared our family’s experience with my mother-in-law’s diagnosis of dementia and the practical and emotional questions that accompany the disease.
While her last name was Brown, our family also called her Mrs. Purple, her favorite color. Nathalie had purple melamine dishes, a purple car, purple carpet in her bedroom, and at one time a purple fur coat.
She was a fiercely independent woman, a pilot, and an accomplished seamstress who made her own dress patterns. One of my favorite photos of her shows her in a purple dress that she made.
As dementia began to creep in, I could see a distant look in her face and eyes. When I look at the photo of her in her purple dress, I can see what was beginning to recede.
Our journey with Alzheimer’s lasted about 12 years. She died on Mother’s Day, 2012, in a memory care center, and is dearly missed to this day.
No two journeys are identical, but families frequently encounter the same fear, exhaustion, isolation, and uncertainty. They must navigate medical appointments, legal and financial planning, home safety and long-term care while trying to preserve the dignity and identity of the person they love.
The work can take a physical and psychological toll. Some caregivers are raising children or helping young adults while also caring for aging parents. Others are themselves older adults managing health problems of their own.
Our reporting has repeatedly returned to one central truth: People living with dementia need care, but their caregivers also need care.
From awareness to local action
Over the past three years, the Voice has documented the growth of dementia support in the Estes Valley.
In 2024, the regional Dementia Together organization brought its Living Well with Dementia symposium to Estes Park. More than 100 people gathered at the Estes Valley Community Center to learn about dementia, meet service providers, and explore ways to reduce caregiver stress.
The event introduced many participants to the SPECAL method — Specialized Early Care for Alzheimer’s — an approach intended to help care partners better understand the experience of a person living with dementia and respond in ways that reduce distress.
The Voice has also written about the Memory Café at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, where people with dementia and their caregivers gather for music, games, conversation, refreshments, and friendship.
The café began in 2018 after members of the congregation recognized a need among families within the church. It eventually opened to the wider community.
Its emphasis is not on what participants have lost, but on what they can still enjoy and accomplish, such as familiar songs, simple activities, laughter, and social interaction that create moments of connection while helping caregivers feel less alone.
The next Memory Café will be Thursday, Sept. 10, from 10 to 11:30. For more information call St. Bart’s church at 970-586-4504 or Jane Stuart, the MC coordinator, at 970-430-8105.
In September 2025, the Voice reported on plans for an Estes Dementia Day Center. The effort grew from Pete Sinnott’s experience caring for his wife, Stephanie, and the long drives required to reach a dementia day program in Fort Collins.
That vision became a reality this year. The Estes Dementia Day Center opened in May in a renovated space at St. Bart’s. The center provides structured daytime programming that includes music, art, movement, cognitive stimulation, sensory activities, and social engagement. It also gives caregivers time to work, rest, complete errands, or simply take a breath.
More than $500,000 was raised to launch the center, hire staff, renovate and furnish the space. By the time the organization held its community open house in June, 45 volunteers were involved in the program.
The center’s guiding principles are compassion, dignity, safety and joy. That final principle matters. A dementia diagnosis changes a life, but it does not eliminate a person’s need for companionship, purpose, creativity, laughter and love.
Recent columns, Hope for the Journey, from Executive Director Debbie Unruh have continued that conversation, addressing caregiver support and music’s ability to reach people even when spoken communication becomes difficult.
No family should walk alone
World Alzheimer’s Month is about awareness, but awareness should lead to something more.
It should encourage people who notice changes in memory, reasoning, language, or behavior to speak with a health care provider. Cognitive changes can have many causes, and some are treatable. A medical evaluation can help families understand what is happening and begin planning.
Awareness should also challenge the stigma that causes people to hide a diagnosis or withdraw from their communities. A person living with dementia remains a person — someone with a history, relationships, preferences, abilities and a need to belong.
And awareness should remind us to see caregivers. They may need a meal, transportation, time away from their responsibilities or simply someone willing to listen without offering easy answers.
Throughout September, the Estes Valley Voice will continue sharing information about Alzheimer’s and dementia, the people who live with these conditions, the family members and professionals who care for them, and the local resources offering help and hope.
The statistics make clear that dementia is a growing public health crisis. The stories behind those statistics make clear why communities must respond with knowledge, patience and compassion.
No treatment can yet erase an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. But no one facing that diagnosis should have to make the journey alone.
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