Support caregivers
This past weekend President Biden recognized November as National Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month through a proclamation. His calls for more research for a cure and support for caregivers rang true to me as the executive director for the Alzheimer's Association Arkansas Chapter.
I understand firsthand that the caregiving needs for someone living with Alzheimer's are extensive and increase over time. Many family caregivers juggle priorities including work and other family responsibilities. Arkansas caregivers are often stretched thin. Many are overwhelmed. Most could use help.
This November, the Alzheimer's Association is asking all Arkansans to reach out and lend a hand. Take time to support a caregiver you know. Run errands, help with a household chore, give caregivers a break by spending time with the person with dementia, and educate yourself about the disease--the more you know, the easier it will be to help. Reach out to the Alzheimer's Association to learn more and get involved.
These small gestures will go a long way in supporting caregivers and people like me during a year that has been challenging for all.
KIRSTEN DICKINS
Little Rock
Reason for mandates
Ronald Reagan said, "Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves."
Vaccine mandates and mask mandates are to protect us from each other, not from ourselves. How can any Republican be opposed to the mandates?
LEN WHITE
Fayetteville
Keeping patients safe
As an eye doctor and a small-business owner in Heber Springs, I want to thank Sen. John Boozman for sponsoring key legislation to keep my patients safe and helping my practice operate more efficiently.
Embracing technology has improved many facets of our daily lives. We're connected, online entertainment options are virtually limitless, and we're seeing a new generation of education and health-care innovation.
However, this rapid expansion and embrace of modern technology has left behind the 45 million Americans who rely on contact lenses for their vision needs. The reason: Many online contact lens retailers still rely on problematic robocalls to verify prescriptions when they could achieve the same verification more efficiently and effectively using a written electronic message, like an email.
A congressional coalition, including Senator Boozman and Reps. Rick Crawford, Bruce Westerman, and Steve Womack, is seeking to better protect patients through the introduction of the Contact Lens Prescription Verification Modernization Act. This common-sense legislation makes the prescription verification process simpler for doctors and safer for patients.
Improper fits and outdated prescriptions can impair vision, and even worse, create permanent ocular damage. As Senator Boozman and Representatives Crawford, Westerman, and Womack clearly recognize, the accuracy of prescriptions is paramount. The bill will allow a doctor to clearly review and confirm a prescription as opposed to having to decipher a robocall, which offers no way to correct any potential errors.
I appreciate our Arkansan leadership on this issue, which may be small for some, but is important for my practice and practices like mine across the country.
JOE SUGG
Heber Springs
Listen to conscience
Here's a quote from Martin Luther King which makes good sense and should be repeated by all the members of Congress before each session, especially when they are getting ready to vote. "There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right."
ROSE GOVAR
Maumelle