Sen. Collins tours Alzheimer’s unit, pushes for more funds

YARMOUTH — U.S. Sen. Susan Collins spent Wednesday morning touring the Alzheimer’s unit of Bay Square, an assisted living facility in Yarmouth, where she met a woman who served in the same sorority as her mother. She met another who recently celebrated her 100th birthday. She passed a group doing light calisthenics and another group doing puzzles.

When she was finished, Collins marveled at the individualized level of care offered to Bay Square’s residents.

Collins, the ranking Republican on the Senate Special Committee on Aging and co-chair of the Congressional Alzheimer’s Task Force, has pushed for increasing federal spending on Alzheimer’s research to $2 billion in the next five years. She said she believes experts who tell her a cure for the disease is possible but not without well-funded research.