THE NUMBER of people with dementia in Ireland is expected to triple over the next 30 years and they will be a “huge burden” on the State without a long-term care strategy, Minister for Health James Reilly has said.
Currently more than 41,000 Irish people have dementia, costing an estimated €1.7 billion in care every year but the number of those with the disease is likely to rise to 147,000 by 2041.
A new report on dementia in Ireland suggests diagnosis of the condition is the exception rather than the rule for those at home.
The report estimates that 41,700 have the disease based on the prevalence in other countries and 26,104 are cared for in their own homes. There are an estimated 50,000 family carers in Ireland looking after someone with at least one of the six specified symptoms of dementia.
The rest are in nursing homes. Two-thirds of all nursing home residents suffer from dementia.
The report, which will form the basis of the Government’s national strategy on dementia, stated that most of those who remain at home “are not aware that they have the disease and few are likely to be in contact with the health and social care systems”.
Only a small proportion of people with dementia are receiving critical services such as daycare, public health nursing, homecare packages and respite.
Mr Reilly told a conference on dementia in Trinity College Dublin’s Science Gallery yesterday that a better diagnosis of dementia had to be a priority and there may need to be a public awareness campaign. He said early intervention and diagnosis would give dementia sufferers the best quality of life possible.
When questioned as to how the Government could develop a strategy on dementia at a time of cutbacks, Mr Reilly said the evidence showed that properly funded homecare was a preferable option to nursing home care.
He described dementia as a “tragedy” for families. He said many families would empathise with Minister for Finance Michael Noonan, whose wife, Flor, has Alzheimer’s. He gave an interview about the condition to Pat Kenny last year.
“Watching him I was struck by how often he spoke about his failures,” Mr Reilly said yesterday.
“He said he didn’t make decisions as quickly as he should have done. I suspect many families in similar situations found themselves nodding as he talked. One of the cruelties of Alzheimer’s is its unpredictability,”
The report, entitled Creating Excellence in Dementia Care, was funded by Atlantic Philanthropies and was written by Prof Suzanne Cahill and Dr Maria Pierce of TCD and Prof Eamon O’Shea from the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology.
Prof Cahill said dementia remained “a hugely underfunded and underprioritised health issue in the country”.
