Each June, to correspond with Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month, Good Neighbor Pharmacy stores raise awareness for the warning signs of Alzheimer’s disease and raise funds for the care, support, and research efforts of the Alzheimer’s Association. Join Good Neighbor Pharmacy and the Alzheimer’s Association by going purple and raising awareness this June.
This May, all WSPC Good Neighbor Pharmacy stores will receive a Good Neighbor Pharmacy in-store customer education and fundraising kit that contains:
- Know the 10 Warning Signs posters
- Buttons
- Brochures
- Brochure holders
- Point-of-sale register signs
- Pin-ups for turnkey fundraising
The Alzheimer’s Association has two signature awareness and fundraising events:
As an Official Sponsor of The Longest Day, Good Neighbor Pharmacy committed to raising a minimum of $100,000 through the cause program. The 2016 campaign raised over $120,000. 100% of the donations at checkout went to fund the full mission of the Alzheimer’s Association.
For more information about these events, go to http://www.alz.org.
Facts from the Alzheimer’s Association:
- Worldwide, 47 million people are living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
- Alzheimer’s is the only cause of death in the top 10 in America that cannot be prevented, cured, or slowed.
- Almost two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer’s disease are women.
- One in three seniors dies with Alzheimer’s or dementia.
- Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth-leading cause of death in the US.
- There are more than 5 million Americans living with the disease.
- There are more than 15.9 million caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias in the U.S.
- In the U.S someone develops Alzheimer’s every 66 seconds.
- In 2015, 15 million American caregivers provided and estimated 18.1 billion hours of unpaid care valued at $221.3 billion.
- In 2016, Alzheimer’s will cost the U.S. $236 billion. This number is expected to rise to over $1 trillion by 2050.
More than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s. Check out how these pharmacies participated to raise awareness and funds for the Alzheimer’s Association:
Dave Olson, Owner of Coast Hills Pharmacy, Laguna Drug, and Via Lido Drugs
“My stores participated in this event because I feel that it’s a disease that gets overlooked. It could use some more attention.” Dave Olson owns three stores in Southern California that participated in the Alzheimer’s Awareness/Good Neighbor Pharmacy tag promotion. This promotion was very important to Dave as he has a personal connection to Alzheimer’s, making this a passionate project for his stores. Dave turned the promotion into a friendly competition between his stores, and he gives his clerks and front-end staff all the credit for bringing the promotion to life.
His Coast Hills Pharmacy store was the most successful, but aside from the competition, his stores learned much more about their patients. Dave explained that patients would walk in the door to make donations and share their connections to the disease, bringing Dave’s staff and patients closer on a personal level. Dave rewarded the winners of the competition with Good Neighbor Pharmacy goodies and individual bonuses. We look forward to seeing how Dave’s stores participate in this year’s promotion.
Kerri Okamura, RPh, Director of Pharmacy Operations at KTA Super Store
From left to right: Cathy Kadokawa, PharmD, Staff Pharmacist; Megan Arbles, PharmD, Pharmacy Manager; Kerry Lum, ABC Sales Executive; Chris Ridley, Alzheimer’s Association Aloha Chapter; Kerri Okamura, RPh Director of Pharmacy; and Toby Taniguchi, President and CEO
This past June, the KTA Super Stores participated in an Alzheimer’s Awareness/Good Neighbor Pharmacy tag promotion. This was a statewide promotion that also created a competition between the KTA Super Stores. KTA Puainako Pharmacy won the statewide contest and received a celebratory pizza party and Good Neighbor Pharmacy pharmacy jackets for the team. The funds went to the local Alzheimer’s Association Aloha Chapter. The promotion provided an opportunity for employees to get more involved in the community and provided a little fun competition among the team. KTA Super Stores and the Alzheimer’s Association Aloha Chapter continue to work together to increase awareness about services available in the community.
Kerri Okamura, RPh, director of pharmacy operations, says that there is a lot more that pharmacies can do to help patients and their families. For example, they helped one patient to get the right meds by filling his wife’s pill organizer. Compliance packaging is another great benefit for patients struggling with their meds. A benefit that KTA provides today is the medication synchronization program for patients and their families; the KTA team works to synchronize everything, helping patients simplify their medicines and minimize trips to the pharmacy to make it less stressful for caregivers. They also incorporate photos of the medicines into the drug schedule as a visual aid for patients and caretakers.
