Forget Me Not, an Award-Winning Stage Play on Alzheimer’s Disease, to be Presented at The Mt. Zion Baptist Church
The play illuminates the disproportionate impact of Alzheimer’s on African Americans and the urgent need for medical research participation to find a cure
NASHVILLE, TN (October 25, 2017) —On Sunday, October 29, AfricanAmericansAgainstAlzheimer’s, an UsAgainstAlzheimer’s network, will present the national award-winning play, Forget Me Not, at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Nashville at 3:00pm. The production is sponsored by the Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation due to its commitment to increase representation of underserved minorities in Alzheimer’s clinical trials. The event is also supported by the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance, the Vanderbilt Center for Cognitive Medicine, and Meharry Medical College.
The play, directed by Garrett Davis of the Forget Me Not Project, takes the audience into the life of a family facing Alzheimer’s disease and shows the disease’s impact on relationships between family members, friends and people in the community. Alzheimer’s affects African Americans at higher rates than other ethnicities, and the battle against the disease requires community-level efforts to prevent, slow and cure it.
“We need to band together to increase minority participation – and African American participation in particular – in clinical trials. It’s the only way to ensure that new drugs, treatments, and therapies are both safe and effective for our community,” said Stephanie Monroe, director of AfricanAmericansAgainstAlzheimer’s, who was named Humanitarian of the Year by the National Baptist Congress in 2014 for her Alzheimer's outreach activities. “By going straight to the heart of communities, we hope to spread the word and make a real difference.”
The showing of the Forget Me Not play will be immediately followed by a discussion with Davis and a local panel of Alzheimer’s experts. The experts will answer important questions about medical and social services available in their communities and share how researchers are working to find ways to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s.
The panel will include the following participants:
- Dr. Consuelo H. Wilkins, Executive Director of the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance, a strategic partnership between Meharry Medical College and Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
- Dr. Paul Newhouse, MD, Director of the Center for Cognitive Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He is also Jim Turner Professor of Cognitive Disorders at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
- Davacenia Adams, LPN, Clinical Research Nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and a nine-year survivor of stage 3 triple negative breast cancer
- Tonya Brown, a caregiver for her mother for over ten years
- Garrett Davis, Director, Forget Me Not Productions
- Stephanie J. Monroe, J.D, Executive Director of AfricanAmericansAgainstAlzheimer’s, an UsAgainstAlzheimer’s network
African Americans are twice as likely as white Americans to develop Alzheimer’s disease, yet they are less likely to be diagnosed. While Alzheimer’s is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States, it is the fourth-leading cause of death for older African Americans. Alzheimer’s is the only disease in the top 10 with no cure, treatment or prevention.
A critical factor in finding a cure for Alzheimer’s is participation in clinical trials, the step-by-step process testing new procedures, drugs, or vaccines for prevention, treatment, screening or improving quality of life. African Americans make up more than 13 percent of the population but comprise only 5 percent of all clinical trial participants. And this participation rate is even lower for older African Americans, who are more likely to develop the disease.
“Alzheimer’s and dementia are a leading cause of death in Tennessee,” said Dr. Consuelo H. Wilkins, Executive Director of the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance. “Productions like Forget Me Not are a great way to raise awareness about the disease and the importance of participating in clinical trials, which can make a meaningful difference to many families.”
"We are committed through our research, clinical trials, and exploration of new drugs and treatments to finding a cure for Alzheimer's disease, but we can't do this alone," said Dr. Paul Newhouse, MD, Director of the Center for Cognitive Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “Community involvement is critical.”
For more information on the Forget Me Not production, visit http://www.usagainstalzheimers.org/networks/african-americans/aan-outreach-events. Watch a video of the Forget Me Not stage play at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSiLm7nmOGU.
WHEN: Sunday, October 29, 3:00 – 6:00 pm, including the panel discussion
WHERE: Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 2261 Murfeesboro Pike, Nashville, TN
TICKETS: The event is free of charge but attendees are asked to pre-register here (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/forget-me-not-tickets-37728590229).
In addition to GAP, the event is partially underwritten by MERCK.
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AfricanAmericansAgainstAlzheimer’s aims to unify the powerful voice of the African American community in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. The network arms African Americans and others who are committed to our mission with the information and easy-to-use connections needed to be heard by the public, in Washington and in state capitals, and by industry leaders and the research community. Their goal is to engage and connect a network of individuals, businesses, and nonprofit organizations to mobilize the energy of African Americans in advocacy efforts that advance our national commitment to ending Alzheimer’s by 2025.
The Global Alzheimer's Platform Foundation was launched in 2015 by UsAgainstAlzheimer's and the Global CEO Initiative (CEOi) on Alzheimer's Disease with the vision of creating an integrated global clinical trial network to reduce the time, cost and risk of Alzheimer's disease clinical trials, a critical factor in the pacing of efforts to speed an effective treatment of Alzheimer's disease to those with or at risk of the disease. Global Alzheimer's Platform Foundation, headquartered in Washington, D.C., aims to create a faster pathway to a treatment for Alzheimer's disease by 2025. It intends to do so by building a standing global clinical trial platform of willing individuals through novel recruitment techniques coupled with a network of high performance clinical trial sites. Global Alzheimer's Platform Foundation also provides an organizational framework that links prominent research institutions, the private sector and government agencies in multiple countries to fight Alzheimer's disease.