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Alzheimer’s Disease is relentlessly destroying the brains and lives of our nation’s older adults, robbing them of memory, the ability to reason, and affecting their emotions and behavior. Alzheimer’s Disease is a degenerative disorder of the brain. The longer we live the greater the risk; “nearly 10 percent of all people over age 65 and up to half of those over age 85 are thought to have Alzheimer’s Disease or another form of dementia” (Anonymous, 2002). The devastation of Alzheimer’s Disease affects millions of families in the United States. Alzheimer’s Disease costs can be measured in mental, physical, emotional, and financial terms (Clark, 1997). In terms of emotional and physical strains, it is perhaps the caregivers and family who suffer the most for they live with the disease consciously, never losing the knowledge or understanding of what is actually going on. This is not to say that the Alzheimer’s patient does not suffer an incredible amount of suffering. Even though they often forget their pain and condition, they are sometimes victims of abuse. In the following paper I will examine two aspects of aging: that of Alzheimer’s Disease and elder abuse. I will examine the effects they have upon families, c