Is the UK ignoring Dementia?
Is there enough support for you if you're caring for someone who has dementia? Millions are ploughed into cancer research but 12 times less goes into looking for a cure for dementia.
Dementia costs the country £23 billion per year and more than cancer and heart disease combined.
According to the Alzheimer's Research Trust 822,000 suffer with dementia - and it's estimated that figure will pass the one million mark before 2025. Each patient costs the country almost £28,000 each year and yet just £61 per person is spent on research.
Lots of interest on the phone-in this morning - you can listen again via the 5 live website.
If you want more information there are a number of organisations working in this area:
The Alzheimers Society
Alzheimer Scotland
The Alzheimers Research Trust
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites
© 2011~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~28~RS~)
Comments
Is this an advert for the beeging bowl of +++insert charity here+++ by the editirs in chief?
Complain about this comment
Of course dementia support is underfunded. Sadly so are many conditions that affect us. Strokes disable and maim thousands every year yet research and care for patients can be very poor. Mental health issues are the same. These are 'cinderella' services. Not 'glamorous' but affecting tens of thousands.
Complain about this comment
I can't agree more that we need to get hold of dementia by making resources available that can tackle this problem, my mother suffered 15 year of dementia/alzheimers, her decline was slow and frightening even though she was on Aricept for a lot of that time.
HOWEVER, I am concerned about the notion of stripping other areas of research to further progress into dementia. Diabetes does cost the NHS a huge amount of money but we as a family have been waiting 20 year for a cure for Type 1. I am worried that diabetes funding would get cut in a world that is decidedly 'unsympathetic' to it. Diabetes is often referred to in the same breath as overweight, and lifestyle choice, (maybe sometimes it is) but my two children have had Type 1 diabetes from the ages of 4 and 10 years old and have to inject themselves everytime they eat every single day of their lives as well as daily finger prickings to test their blood or they would be fatally ill. They are both slim and did nothing to bring this on themselves and are now in their early 20's with no sign of a cure on any horizon. I would be horrified if the 'unsexy' area of diabetes was ever to be considered less important that the time bomb that is dementia.
Would be interested in what others think.
MS
Complain about this comment
"Is the UK ignoring Dementia?"
Given the number of responses on this blog, yes.
Complain about this comment
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
I was a 24hr carer for a dementia sufferer for years and feel I must tell others about the ongoing consequences in my own life. The trauma that I have experienced in living with dementia still haunts me with unbearable emotional memories more than 2 years after the sufferer's death. I can understand why so many people are afraid to be involved because the experience changes them and they prefer to accept the advice given by professionals that dementia sufferers are not aware emotionally. No-one actually knows this and I can only imagine how terrifying it is to be on the receiving end of "care" when no-one listens to you because they say you don't know what you are talking about and if you persist in trying to be understood you are sedated out of consciousness.
Another point that I would like to make to any readers is that,in the event of a physical injury whilst in care, dementia suffers are not given general anesthetics. For instance a double fracture would be xrayed and even if the bones were displaced, this would not be corrected as is the usual procedure. This seems to be a general policy in the NHS as if perhaps dementia sufferers do not feel pain and because they have dementia they do not really count. A dog cannot tell you how it feels but it's broken bones still get set. I think, without exception, everyone whom I have told about the "no general anesthetic" did not believe this to be true.
I could go on but I think I have said enough - yes, the UK needs to wake up to the consequences of dementia, not just for the sufferers but also for the carers.
Complain about this comment
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
Dementia can be prevented at early level, exams are necessary and can't be ignored.
Written by [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]
Complain about this comment
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
Yes, that's right - your chances of getting a form of dementia increase with age. People are living longer these days therefore we have a increasing numbers of dementia sufferers. Alzheimer's is a disease which causes dementia, but as your doctor said there are many different forms (with their own underlying causes). If I remember correctly Alzheimer's is down to the accumulation of misfolded proteins which damage neural tissue - the resulting tissue death undermines cognitive ability.
That said it's not all bad news - some research suggests that regular aerobic exercise can have a protective effect on brain health (probably wouldn't make any difference to Alzheimer's, but can help to stave off normal decline). One study (Colcombe, S. et al 2006 - Journal of Gerontology) found that regular aerobic exercise seemed to increase the volume of some brain areas in older participants.
Keep exercising, keep using your brain and you give yourself the best chance of keeping it healthy.
Complain about this comment
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
View these comments in RSS