Hispanic alliance reaches out to Alzheimer's victims

The signs were subtle, at first.

Raul Rojas would be late on a bill, or he would take a wrong turn when driving.

Then he started paying the bills twice, sometimes in triplicate. The little things began adding up, and soon it was clear that Rojas, 78, was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, says his daughter, Christy, 28.

The hardest part, she says, is the role reversal, where the daughter now takes care of the father.

“Growing up, I was very spoiled by both my parents,” says the Portage Park resident. “Now, I’m the one who’s taking care of him and spoiling him.”

Hispanics are more likely to experience dementia years earlier than people of European descent. Nearly 140,000 Hispanics in the Chicagoland area have Alzheimer’s, and many live in households without a readily identifiable caretaker.

Armed with those statistics, Constantina Mizis is leading a local effort to help Hispanic families cope with Alzheimer’s.

When her organization, the Latino Alzheimer’s & Memory Disorders Alliance (LAMDA), launched earlier this month, it immediately became of beacon of hope for caregivers.

For more about LAMDA, see the full story HERE.