Urgent action needed on dementia
In addressing the National Dementia Congress recently, Glenn Rees, CEO of Alzheimer’s Australia, said that “Dementia has to be front of mind in the reform of the Australian health system”.
“An approach is needed that both provides support for people currently living with dementia and reduces the projected growth in the number of people with dementia”.
Australia led the world with the National Dementia Initiative in 2005, in taking action designed to improve dementia care through new dementia community care packages, training initiatives, dementia care research and support services delivered by Alzheimer’s Australia through the National Dementia Support Program.
“It’s now time to take action to reduce the number of new cases of dementia in the future”.
This is important because over one million Australians will otherwise have dementia by 2050: because dementia is already the single largest cause of disability among older Australians and because dementia spending will be the third greatest cause of health care spending within two decades.
In the case of other chronic diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease, health policy has taken action to improve care and invest in research to find cures and promote prevention. Dementia should be addressed in the same way.
“Investment in dementia research is very low in relation to other major chronic diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease based on prevalence, disability burden and cost”.
Dementia risk reduction is not included in national health prevention programs, yet there is good evidence that physical exercise, mental activity and good nutrition can reduce the risk of dementia.
Less than 50 per cent of Australians are aware of this.
“Even a reduction of 10 per cent in the projected numbers of people with dementia would mean 100,000 fewer people with dementia in 2050 and a big cost saving and improvement in quality of life”.
The release of the 2010 Intergenerational Report has brought a welcome focus on health issues and the ageing of the population. Cognitive impairment and dementia, should be front of mind in health policy because they contribute significantly to morbidity and health care costs in the last few years of life, make the management of other conditions more difficult and reduce the quality of life of older Australians.
Also released in the UK this month was the Dementia 2010 report suggesting that each dementia patient costs the British economy more than the average wage and five times more than the average cancer patient.
The UK report is another wake-up call for the UK and other countries on the consequences of failure to invest in dementia research.
Alzheimer’s Australia has proposed in its 2010 budget submission Dementia: facing the epidemic that $1 billion is made available over five years in addition to the funding currently provided for the Dementia Initiative – about $120 million per annum.
This additional spending represents less than $200 million per annum or four per cent of the current cost of dementia care. Important among the priorities identified by consumers in Dementia: facing the epidemic is research and dementia risk reduction.
Future generations of ageing Australians have a right to expect that governments will take action to reduce the scale of the dementia epidemic.
What’s the difference between dementia and Alzheimers? what is the difference? I think my father may be suffering one of these? does anyone know the warning signs? thanks