NATIONWIDE — When my father was in the early stages of dementia, he forgot he took his daily walk.

For years, he hiked down the mountain he lived on and then back up once a day. For years. And then one day, a couple hours after we’d done the hike, he hurried over to me and said, “Oh, we’d better get the walk in before the sun goes down!”

That was an early clue. Then the nightmare began. It went on for eight years before he finally passed away.

June is Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month, and the Alzheimer’s Association is calling on people to wear purple in support of dementia awareness. The association’s Longest Day fundraiser on June 21 is meant to boost understanding of the disease and raise funds for dementia research.

Almost six million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia. Black and Latin people are expected to see the biggest increases between now and 2060, the CDC said.

The vast majority of sufferers are over age 65, but dementia can hit younger people too.

Dementia isn’t a specific disease, according to the Alzheimer’s Association; it’s a term for a collection of symptoms such as difficulty thinking, an inability to remember recent events, to make decisions, to carry out activities—like cooking—you have always performed with ease.

If you’re thinking that this happens to you all the time, consider this: the memory loss or confusion in dementia severely impacts your life, according to the CDC.

Kitchen fires, because you started cooking something and then went off to do something else. And not just once, but many times. Starting to drive to your favorite grocery store, then forgetting the way and having to call home for help. Assuming you remember how to use your phone. Again, not just once.

Losing weight, because you prepared food, put it on the table, and then forgot to eat it. Repeatedly.

More symptoms might show up, depending on what’s causing dementia and on the patient’s personality. Rage, anxiety, hallucinations. Trouble managing finances. Trouble bathing. Sometimes patients become suicidal.

More care is required, often by unpaid family members and friends.

There are medications that can help slow down the progression of the disease or manage psychiatric problems, but there is no cure.

The RAND Corporation, a nonpartisan think tank, found that the “total economic cost of dementia ranges from $159 billion to $215 billion annually, when the monetary value of informal care is included.”

The greatest cost is nursing homes and other forms of long term care, coming to 75 to 84 percent of the total. It doesn’t count the cost of lost work time by family caregivers.

“By 2040, the total cost of dementia will increase to as much as $511 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars,” the organization found.

Sources: www.alz.org/abam, cdc.gov, caregiveraction.org, alzheimersresearchuk.org, rand.org. https://www.rand.org/capabilities/solutions/planning-for-the-rising-costs-of-dementia.html