The Department of Health and Human Services is rewriting the federal government's roadmap for Alzheimer's disease, replacing a plan built around a 2025 target year with one that runs through 2035. For adult children caring for a parent with dementia, the update matters because it will reset the priorities that shape research funding, caregiver support programs, and early-detection efforts for the next decade. The rewrite follows a 2024 reauthorization of the National Alzheimer's Project Act, which extended the federal project's legal authority through 2035 after the original 2011 law was set to expire in 2025. HHS's Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) is now running the public and advisory process that will produce the new document, though no final plan has been published yet.
Medical information disclaimer: This article is for general educational purposes only and does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a physician or other qualified health professional about symptoms, medications, tests, or treatment decisions.
Table of Contents
- What Is the National Plan, and Why Is It Changing Now?
- How Is HHS Deciding What Goes Into the 2026-2035 Plan?
- What Does This Mean for Adult Children Right Now?
- What Has the Current Plan Already Delivered for Families?
- What Should Adult Children Do While the Plan Is Still Being Written?
- Frequently Asked Questions
What Is the National Plan, and Why Is It Changing Now?
The National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease is the federal government's strategic framework for fighting the disease, first created under the National Alzheimer's Project Act of 2011. It sets long-term goals that direct how agencies like the National Institutes of Health, the Administration for Community Living, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spend money and coordinate programs related to Alzheimer's and other dementias. The current version, finalized in 2025, organizes federal action around six long-term goals.
One of them, Goal 3, focuses specifically on expanding supports for people with Alzheimer's and their families, including helping family caregivers keep providing care while protecting their own health, according to the 2025 National Plan. That is the section most directly relevant to an adult child managing care for a parent. The plan is being rewritten now because its legal authorization was renewed through 2035, and because the prior plan's framing around a 2025 end date needed to be replaced with a decade-long horizon, according to ASPE's approach document for the update. That document sets the process HHS is following, covering research priorities, risk reduction, early detection, and care and support services.
How Is HHS Deciding What Goes Into the 2026-2035 Plan?
HHS opened a formal public comment period, called a Request for Information, asking families, caregivers, and care partners to weigh in on what the new plan should prioritize. The comment period covered research direction, risk reduction, early detection, and care and support services, and closed on August 15, 2026, according to the Federal Register notice. Alongside the written comment process, HHS held listening sessions in 2026 with people living with Alzheimer's and dementia and with their caregivers, specifically to gather input for the plan update. A summary of those sessions was published in August 2026, according to the 2026 NAPA Listening Session Report.
These sessions give caregivers a direct channel into the plan's content, separate from the written RFI comments. The Advisory Council on Alzheimer's Research, Care, and Services, the federal body that oversees the plan's development, began working on the update at its February 2026 meeting. Agencies including the Administration for Community Living, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and the CDC presented on their roles in the update, according to NAPA Advisory Council meeting materials. Because these three agencies run many of the programs caregivers rely on, such as respite care funding and community-based support services, what they bring to the table shapes what the next decade of caregiver support looks like.
What Does This Mean for Adult Children Right Now?
As of this writing, HHS has not published a final 2026-2035 National Plan. The process remains at the advisory-council planning and public-input stage, according to ASPE's National Plans page. That means specific new provisions for adult-child caregivers are not yet finalized, and nothing in the current draft process has replaced the caregiver supports already in place under the 2025 plan's Goal 3.
For now, the practical takeaway is that the caregiver-support infrastructure already operating through the Administration for Community Living, HRSA, and CDC continues to function under the existing plan while the update is drafted. Adult children navigating a parent's diagnosis today are working within the 2025 framework, not a new one. A government watchdog review flagged a limitation worth knowing about: HHS has not consistently set measurable near-term goals or tracked and reported progress toward the plan's long-term aims, including the goal of effectively preventing or treating Alzheimer's disease, according to a Government Accountability Office report. That gap affects how concretely any future promises in the 2026-2035 plan can be measured once it is published, so families should expect the new plan to state goals more easily than it proves progress toward them.
What Has the Current Plan Already Delivered for Families?
While the next plan is being drafted, it helps to know what the existing plan has produced. The GAO identified the first two FDA-approved treatments shown to slow progression in early-stage Alzheimer's disease as a key achievement federal officials point to under the current National Plan, according to the same GAO report.
These approvals represent the most concrete medical development adult children can discuss with a parent's neurologist right now, independent of what the 2026-2035 update eventually contains. That track record gives a sense of what the federal plan can realistically produce: regulatory approvals for treatments move through existing FDA channels regardless of the planning document's goals, while caregiver-support programs depend more directly on the funding and coordination priorities the plan sets. The 2026-2035 update is expected to address both tracks, but only the research and treatment side has a recent, concrete result to point to.
What Should Adult Children Do While the Plan Is Still Being Written?
There is no action required to benefit from the update once it is finalized, since it will apply to federal programs families already interact with. In the meantime, a few steps keep caregivers positioned to take advantage of whatever the new plan prioritizes: The RFI comment period has already closed, so public comments can no longer shape this particular round of the plan, but the advisory council's work and eventual publication remain the events to track.
- Stay enrolled in or aware of existing Administration for Community Living and HRSA caregiver-support programs, since those are the agencies shaping the next plan's caregiver provisions.
- Ask a parent's care team whether the FDA-approved early-stage treatments identified by GAO are appropriate for their diagnosis stage, since eligibility depends heavily on how early the disease is caught.
- Watch for the final 2026-2035 plan's publication on ASPE's National Plans page rather than relying on secondhand summaries, since the document is still in the advisory and drafting stage.
- Expect the published plan to state long-term goals more clearly than it reports measurable near-term progress, based on GAO's findings about the current plan's tracking gaps.
Frequently Asked Questions
Has the 2026-2035 National Plan been published yet?
No. As of this update, HHS has not published a final version; the process is still at the advisory-council planning and public-input stage, according to ASPE's National Plans page.
Can caregivers still submit comments on the plan update?
No. The public Request for Information comment period closed on August 15, 2026, according to the Federal Register notice.
What federal agencies are shaping the caregiver-support parts of the new plan?
The Administration for Community Living, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and the CDC presented on their roles at the February 2026 Advisory Council meeting.
What treatment progress has the current plan already produced?
GAO cites the first two FDA-approved treatments shown to slow progression in early-stage Alzheimer's disease as a key achievement under the existing plan.
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