University of Florida: Walking across the University of Florida’s Health Science Center campus, Adam Woods cites a sobering statistic. “By 2050, the U.S. population over the age of 65 will double,” he
says. “We’re simply not set up as a society to house and treat an
exponential growth of dementia patients. Economically, our healthcare
system is unable to absorb that impact.” Woods is an assistant professor of clinical and health psychology in
the College of Public Health and Health Professions as well as the
assistant director of UF’s Center for Cognitive Aging and Memory. He is
looking at ways to delay the onset of dementia, or just preventing
people from getting it all together. Besides the obviously devastating
diagnosis for a patient and their loved ones, there are the cold hard
facts of caring for someone with dementia: the astronomical financial
costs involved.
