HHS Announces New Plan to Combat Alzheimer’s & Dementia

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida—The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the 2026 Update to the “National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias,” taking Department-wide actions to guide coordinated federal action on dementia risk reduction, research and innovation, care and support for people living with dementia and their families. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made the announcement at the Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The plan includes two areas of focus for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS): strengthening public health capacity for caregiving and dementia support and exploring lifestyle interventions that aren’t available in traditional Medicare.

“Millions of American families have seen the devastating toll of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias,” said Kennedy. “Under President Trump, HHS is shifting the national strategy toward prevention, earlier detection and faster development of better diagnostics and treatments. We are advancing gold-standard science, reducing risk where we can, improving care and giving patients and families stronger support at every stage of the disease.”

The updated plan puts greater emphasis on reducing dementia risk across the lifespan and translating scientific discoveries into better prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care. It also formally recognizes related dementias in the plan’s title, reflecting public input and the shared challenges that patients and families face across different forms of dementia.

“The human and financial costs of Alzheimer’s and dementia care are growing at unacceptable rates, and this updated national plan addresses both,” said CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz. “Through initiatives that ease the burden on caregivers and expand access to lifestyle medicine interventions that help slow cognitive decline, CMS is conserving public health dollars, promoting human dignity and giving American families more good years with the people they love.”

The National Plan replaces its six historical goals with four goals that follow the course of brain health and dementia across the lifespan:

• Promote dementia risk reduction across the lifespan. Advance understanding of risk factors, support healthy aging and put evidence into practice where it may help reduce risk or delay onset.
• Accelerate discovery and innovation to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Advance research, biomarkers, clinical trials, prevention, treatment development and the translation of discoveries into practice.
• Advance high-value dementia care across the care journey. Improve care from detection and diagnosis through treatment, management, coordination and transitions between settings.
• Strengthen evidence-based services and supports for people living with dementia and their families. Strengthen caregiver support, long-term services and supports, home and community-based services, respite, education, safety and planning.

Research and the translation of evidence into practice run through all four goals. The update also highlights infrastructure, biomarkers and early identification, data and measurement, and the needs of populations and settings at high risk for or disproportionately affected by dementia.

The 2026 Update highlights major federal accomplishments and priority activities planned for 2027. Over the next year, HHS will measure progress toward each goal and report on the National Plan’s impacts in the 2027 Update.

Federal Initiatives Supporting the National Plan

HHS is advancing new and ongoing initiatives across 10 agencies to turn the National Plan’s priorities into action.

The Food and Drug Administration launched an Alzheimer’s Prevention Accelerator to advance the development of new approaches to prevention.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) announced a collective investment of up to $48.8 million in projects focused on earlier detection and intervention. These new ARPA-H awards join existing, complementary efforts across ARPA-H that address Alzheimer’s disease, totaling up to $155.3 million.

The Administration for Community Living will expand brain health resources and training for elder justice professionals. Other HHS initiatives will expand dementia training and screening in health centers, develop behavioral health and crisis response resources for older adults experiencing cognitive decline, strengthen public health approaches to dementia, study diagnostic delays and the economic burden of dementia, review evidence on prevention and test a lifestyle intervention for beneficiaries with mild cognitive impairment.

The 2026 National Plan provides a coordinated framework for federal action to protect brain health, accelerate scientific progress, improve dementia care and strengthen support for patients and families.

Details on the national plan and participating agencies’ initiatives are available at hhs.gov/aging/adrd.