Senator Collins Visit Northern Light Acadia Hospital’s Mood and Memory Clinic

BANGOR, Maine, Aug. 15 -- Sen. Susan M. Collins, R-Maine, issued the following news release:

U.S. Senator Susan Collins visited Northern Light Acadia Hospital's Mood and Memory Clinic to view the new clinic and participate in a briefing and discussion with Acadia Hospital representatives. Senator Collins is the Chairman of the Aging Committee and a founder of the Alzheimer's Task Force in the Senate. The facility has more than 900 patients.

"For more than 25 years, Northern Light Acadia Hospital has provided essential mental health services to both children and adults. As the only specialty clinic for older adult mood and cognitive disorders north of Portland and the only one in Maine with an active research program, Northern Light has an integral role in meeting the health care needs of Maine communities," said Senator Collins. "We had a productive discussion about the clinic's promising statewide study on Alzheimer's as well as the difficulties it is facing to meet the growing demand for its services. We also spoke about how the BOLD Act I authored could help expand their clinical and research capacity."

The Building Our Largest Dementia (BOLD) Infrastructure for Alzheimer's Act Senator Collins authored to create a public health infrastructure to combat Alzheimer's disease was signed into law on December 31, 2018. Earlier this year, Senator Collins joined bipartisan groups in introducing the Younger-Onset Alzheimer's Disease Act, which would allow Alzheimer's patients younger than age 60 to access support programs and services, and the Improving HOPE for Alzheimer's Act, which would help improve Medicare beneficiaries' access to a care planning session if they are diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

In 2011, Senator Collins authored the National Alzheimer's Project Act (NAPA) with then-Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN), which set the national goal of preventing and treating Alzheimer's by the year 2025. Last year, Senator Collins secured an additional $425 million--the largest increase in history--for Alzheimer's research, bringing our total investment to $2.34 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2019. It builds on significant increases Senator Collins has secured in recent years, including $414 million in FY 2018, $400 million in FY 2017, and $350 million FY 2016. Senator Collins recently expressed her strong support for the $2.822 billion NIH estimates it will need in FY 2021 to find a means of reaching the national goal by 2025.

Northern Light Acadia Hospital is a not-for-profit psychiatric hospital in Bangor. For more than 25 years, it has provided inpatient and outpatient behavioral care to both children and adults. They specialize in the treatment of mental illness and substance abuse and employ more than 600 professionals.