TOLEDO, Ohio — The Alzheimer's Association of Northwest Ohio is spreading a message of awareness of the effects beyond just patients and resources available for all.
According to the Alzheimer's Association, someone with dementia can live up to 20 years after a diagnosis and as the disease progresses, the burden on caregivers only worsens.
A recent study by the Cleveland Clinic says 59% of unpaid caregivers report emotional stress and 39% of unpaid caregivers report physical stress.
Members of the Alzheimer's Association want caregivers and families to know they are not alone.
"It was different very different although we had started seeing the symptoms filtering in," Vickie Rankins-Anderson, a local caregiver, said.
For 34 years, the Andersons spent their marriage traveling and creating memories until the early signs of Larry Anderson's Alzheimer's began to worsen.
"Two years ago, I was doing a bank errand and on my way home, I got to an intersection that I knew where I was located," Larry Anderson said. "But on this particular day, I couldn't figure out how to get home."
Larry Anderson said he was lost and that was the moment his wife Vickie Rankins-Anderson became his caregiver.
She said in the last two years, the job has taken its toll on her health as well.
"You can have some down days and it can get very murky as to whether it's just the blues, or whether you are suffering from depression," Vickie Rankins-Anderson said.
And Vickie Rankins-Anderson is not alone. According to a Cleveland Clinic survey, 36% of caregivers live with depression and anxiety.
Matthew and Cathy Sims have been married for 33 years and they have cared for their parents who have also suffered from forms of dementia.
"I got angry and then I decided 'okay, I have to put that anger into action. I have to do something,'" Cathy Sims said. "And that was a way that I found for me to keep my sanity in it all."
The Sims have been caregivers now for half of the years they've been married. Matthew Sims' mother and father died from Alzheimer's and dementia, and Cathy Sims' mother also now lives with Alzheimer's.
The Sims became advocates for the Alzheimer's Association of Northwest Ohio.
"They provide so much information there's caregiver support groups there are respite care centers, whether it's for a weekend or some of them the person can go daily, " Cathy Sims said.
Cathy Sims witnessed the toll of being a caregiver first on her father, but as it worsened it impacted her entire family.
"The caregiver gets isolated there is a point where the one that's suffering can no longer get out of the house, they can't handle all of the stimulation so there becomes such an isolation with the caregiver and they get depressed," Cathy Sims said.
Larry Anderson is in the early stages of Alzheimer's and he wants people to know this disease has a full spectrum of stages.
"People judge you off your appearance and assume if you are not curled into a ball, you don't need help," Vickie Rankins-Anderson said.
They said dementia education is for everyone.
The Andersons are now members of Memory Lane respite center.
Which they said has helped them to just live life and Larry Anderson says being a part of the program is enjoyable and the people are a pleasure to be around.
"Knowing that people are here for us, this is what they do," Vickie Rankins-Anderson said. "It's just tremendous."