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Are you worried by dementia figures?
One in three people will be affected by dementia by 2051, costing billions of pounds each year experts predict.
The number of people suffering from dementia in the UK will increase by 154% to 1.7 million by 2015, the research by the London School of Economics and Institute of Pyschiatry suggests.
Caring for one person with dementia is estimated to cost over £25,00 per year. Currently, the bulk of this cost is met by dementia sufferers' and their families.
Have you been affected by dementia? Are you worried by the projected figures? Who should bare the cost of caring for dementia sufferers'? Should the treatment of dementia become a national priority?
The number of people suffering from dementia in the UK will increase by 154% to 1.7 million by 2015, the research by the London School of Economics and Institute of Pyschiatry suggests.
Caring for one person with dementia is estimated to cost over £25,00 per year. Currently, the bulk of this cost is met by dementia sufferers' and their families.
Have you been affected by dementia? Are you worried by the projected figures? Who should bare the cost of caring for dementia sufferers'? Should the treatment of dementia become a national priority?
Scroll to see replies
Dementia is a terrifying disorder. My nan has this (to a very severe degree) and requires full time care (in a specialist home). I don't agree with the notion that the cost is "met by dementia sufferers' and their families" as she is being treated on the NHS as far as I am aware.
Unfortunately it is a rather forgotten illness. People tend to write it off as "just old age" and there are many, many lonely people that never seem to get visitors in the home. It is a great burden to bear, I understand, and I see how deeply it must affect my grand-father (having to watch his wife of god knows how many years completely dependent on others, unable to recognise any of those who love her and whom she once loved). I often draw these awful parallels between her and my niece (who is just over a year old). Both have to be fed, clothed, cared for around the clock - the only difference is that my niece is learning and growing all of the while, whilst my nan is skeletal - spilling food around her face, with slowly blinking, milky eyes.
Unfortunately it is a rather forgotten illness. People tend to write it off as "just old age" and there are many, many lonely people that never seem to get visitors in the home. It is a great burden to bear, I understand, and I see how deeply it must affect my grand-father (having to watch his wife of god knows how many years completely dependent on others, unable to recognise any of those who love her and whom she once loved). I often draw these awful parallels between her and my niece (who is just over a year old). Both have to be fed, clothed, cared for around the clock - the only difference is that my niece is learning and growing all of the while, whilst my nan is skeletal - spilling food around her face, with slowly blinking, milky eyes.
A lot of the time, dementia sufferers aren't classed as receiving medical care, but rather personal care, by the NHS - and hence have to pay. Even up here in Scotland - where personal care for the elderly is supposedly paid for by local authorities - it's very difficult to get because the councils are already too skint to administer it.
My last remaining grandparent has it. He has little understanding of anything going on, doesn't recognise anybody and coincidentally has lost most of his motor skills. He still manages to get violent with the staff at the BUPA nursing home he's in, so mostly he's just left to get on with it - which generally involves being in bed for about 16 hours a day, or nodding off in a chair.
But yes, if that happens to me, I'd very much like a bullet put in my head.
My last remaining grandparent has it. He has little understanding of anything going on, doesn't recognise anybody and coincidentally has lost most of his motor skills. He still manages to get violent with the staff at the BUPA nursing home he's in, so mostly he's just left to get on with it - which generally involves being in bed for about 16 hours a day, or nodding off in a chair.
But yes, if that happens to me, I'd very much like a bullet put in my head.
It's an impossible situation to imagine - I spend much of my time when visiting her just wondering what on earth she is actually thinking and experiencing. When she does speak (which is often garbled and a shout) it seems to be of the past.
The staff at the home are fantastic however, and they try and keep them 'active', or at least entertained, to some extent. Although it seems almost fruitless.
Plus they had a mad Christmas party with this guy singing bad 'classical' songs from the 40s wearing rather too tight trousers. Yeesh.
The staff at the home are fantastic however, and they try and keep them 'active', or at least entertained, to some extent. Although it seems almost fruitless.
Plus they had a mad Christmas party with this guy singing bad 'classical' songs from the 40s wearing rather too tight trousers. Yeesh.
I'm really not that bothered. Nature will take its course, que sera sera.
Dementia is pretty much the only thing I fear. I'm not afraid of death or disease, but having dementia or someone I love having it terrifies me.
Have Your Say
One in three people will be affected by dementia by 2051, costing billions of pounds each year experts predict.
The number of people suffering from dementia in the UK will increase by 154% to 1.7 million by 2015, the research by the London School of Economics and Institute of Pyschiatry suggests.
Caring for one person with dementia is estimated to cost over £25,00 per year. Currently, the bulk of this cost is met by dementia sufferers' and their families.
Have you been affected by dementia? Are you worried by the projected figures? Who should bare the cost of caring for dementia sufferers'? Should the treatment of dementia become a national priority?
The number of people suffering from dementia in the UK will increase by 154% to 1.7 million by 2015, the research by the London School of Economics and Institute of Pyschiatry suggests.
Caring for one person with dementia is estimated to cost over £25,00 per year. Currently, the bulk of this cost is met by dementia sufferers' and their families.
Have you been affected by dementia? Are you worried by the projected figures? Who should bare the cost of caring for dementia sufferers'? Should the treatment of dementia become a national priority?
My grandad has recently been diagnosed as being in the early stages of alzhemiers disease. I don't really understand the condition all that well, but I'm finding it really hard to cope with the fact that he probably won't even remember who I am in a couple of years or maybe even months as we don't know how quickly it will progress. He already forgets things he needs form the shop and doesn't want to watch films that he really used to like and he says that he can see things others can't. He gets confused easily. I know someone who is in the very late stages and she can hardly walk and her husband has to feed her. I'm also frightened at the prospect that he will have to go in a nursing home. I did work experience in a nursing home 6 years ago and although it did its best to give support and care to the residents and it was a really nice enviroment. I can't cope with the idea that he won't be with the family have to be in such a place.
Should the treatment of dementia become a national priority?
Undoubtedly.
I find it utterly appalling the way elderly people are treated within the NHS; it seems that due to their age, they are immediately deemed as patient's whose value is questionable - solely upon their age.
If anything, should we not be championing and preserving these people? Okay, admittedly, this sounds in alliance with 'old fashioned' values, however, one cannot fail but to realise the contribution these peoples' have made to society as a whole - WWII for example. Should these men and women not be aided in their plight against unruly health?
I hate to say it, but it seems to me, that incrementally, we are a nation that lends itself to Darwinism: cancer patients are being denied treatment, and here dementia patients are being categorised as a costly outlet.
So?
We are human, we have a bloody obligation...
- An unfashionable concept: empathy, I believe!
Undoubtedly.
I find it utterly appalling the way elderly people are treated within the NHS; it seems that due to their age, they are immediately deemed as patient's whose value is questionable - solely upon their age.
If anything, should we not be championing and preserving these people? Okay, admittedly, this sounds in alliance with 'old fashioned' values, however, one cannot fail but to realise the contribution these peoples' have made to society as a whole - WWII for example. Should these men and women not be aided in their plight against unruly health?
I hate to say it, but it seems to me, that incrementally, we are a nation that lends itself to Darwinism: cancer patients are being denied treatment, and here dementia patients are being categorised as a costly outlet.
So?
We are human, we have a bloody obligation...
- An unfashionable concept: empathy, I believe!
Lib North
A lot of the time, dementia sufferers aren't classed as receiving medical care, but rather personal care, by the NHS - and hence have to pay. Even up here in Scotland - where personal care for the elderly is supposedly paid for by local authorities - it's very difficult to get because the councils are already too skint to administer it.
My last remaining grandparent has it. He has little understanding of anything going on, doesn't recognise anybody and coincidentally has lost most of his motor skills. He still manages to get violent with the staff at the BUPA nursing home he's in, so mostly he's just left to get on with it - which generally involves being in bed for about 16 hours a day, or nodding off in a chair.
But yes, if that happens to me, I'd very much like a bullet put in my head.
My last remaining grandparent has it. He has little understanding of anything going on, doesn't recognise anybody and coincidentally has lost most of his motor skills. He still manages to get violent with the staff at the BUPA nursing home he's in, so mostly he's just left to get on with it - which generally involves being in bed for about 16 hours a day, or nodding off in a chair.
But yes, if that happens to me, I'd very much like a bullet put in my head.
Firstly -rubbish! The councils are nowhere near "skint" as you put it. "Skint" is a 12 year old who has no money for his bag o sweeties. The councils are far, far from that stage. They have so much money stashed away.
Secondly - rubbish! you have no way of knowing if you will want a bullet in your head if it happens to you. Right now you may feel like that, but, as you have no way of know what sufferers feel like, you have no way of knowing what you will feel like should you have the misfotune of getting the disease when you are older.
Lib North
A lot of the time, dementia sufferers aren't classed as receiving medical care, but rather personal care, by the NHS - and hence have to pay. Even up here in Scotland - where personal care for the elderly is supposedly paid for by local authorities - it's very difficult to get because the councils are already too skint to administer it.
My last remaining grandparent has it. He has little understanding of anything going on, doesn't recognise anybody and coincidentally has lost most of his motor skills. He still manages to get violent with the staff at the BUPA nursing home he's in, so mostly he's just left to get on with it - which generally involves being in bed for about 16 hours a day, or nodding off in a chair.
But yes, if that happens to me, I'd very much like a bullet put in my head.
My last remaining grandparent has it. He has little understanding of anything going on, doesn't recognise anybody and coincidentally has lost most of his motor skills. He still manages to get violent with the staff at the BUPA nursing home he's in, so mostly he's just left to get on with it - which generally involves being in bed for about 16 hours a day, or nodding off in a chair.
But yes, if that happens to me, I'd very much like a bullet put in my head.
Ditto. I don't know what's worse: Imagining myself having it or imagining a parent having it. *Shudder*
Nessyfencer
Secondly - rubbish! you have no way of knowing if you will want a bullet in your head if it happens to you. Right now you may feel like that, but, as you have no way of know what sufferers feel like, you have no way of knowing what you will feel like should you have the misfotune of getting the disease when you are older.
i may not know what having dementia feels like however i do know that being dependant on people 24/7 would be a situation i do not wish to be in, the thought of needing other people needing to care for me frankly horrifies the hell outta me and in that case yes i would rather a bullet in the head
wesetters
When they say affected by do they mean suffer from ?
The thought of losing my mind terrifies me, I'd rather die.
The thought of losing my mind terrifies me, I'd rather die.
i agree id rather be dead than like that
Visiting_Babylon
Undoubtedly.
I find it utterly appalling the way elderly people are treated within the NHS; it seems that due to their age, they are immediately deemed as patient's whose value is questionable - solely upon their age.
If anything, should we not be championing and preserving these people? Okay, admittedly, this sounds in alliance with 'old fashioned' values, however, one cannot fail but to realise the contribution these peoples' have made to society as a whole - WWII for example. Should these men and women not be aided in their plight against unruly health?
I hate to say it, but it seems to me, that incrementally, we are a nation that lends itself to Darwinism: cancer patients are being denied treatment, and here dementia patients are being categorised as a costly outlet.
So?
We are human, we have a bloody obligation...
- An unfashionable concept: empathy, I believe!
I find it utterly appalling the way elderly people are treated within the NHS; it seems that due to their age, they are immediately deemed as patient's whose value is questionable - solely upon their age.
If anything, should we not be championing and preserving these people? Okay, admittedly, this sounds in alliance with 'old fashioned' values, however, one cannot fail but to realise the contribution these peoples' have made to society as a whole - WWII for example. Should these men and women not be aided in their plight against unruly health?
I hate to say it, but it seems to me, that incrementally, we are a nation that lends itself to Darwinism: cancer patients are being denied treatment, and here dementia patients are being categorised as a costly outlet.
So?
We are human, we have a bloody obligation...
- An unfashionable concept: empathy, I believe!
The idea of me or anyone I know having dementia scares me. It is a terrible, terrible disease and it is painful for anyone close to the sufferer.
I do think your ideas are noble, Visiting_Babylon.
However, I do not think all old people should be championed and preserved. Just because someone did some good things once, or lived during a certain period, or fought in a certain war doesn't mean they were good people all around, or champions, or have some kind of superior knowledge the rest of us lack. A lot of old people are just that - old. And tired of life. And bitter. A lot of them have skeletons in their closet. Being old does not make anyone an amazing person.
Additionally, if they have dementia, nothing we do matters, and none of their stories or deeds matter to them either. They don't remember any of it. They can't tell you their stories or perform noble deeds. Their brains are failing them, and quite honestly, I think the humane thing to do when it gets really bad in anyone is to give them a gentle poison and let them rest.
I don't doubt that some old people get brushed aside in the national health system, and perhaps that's not fair, but there are a lot of young sick people too. With limited funds, it only makes sense to give the money and resources over to those who have 30 years ahead of them instead of 5, especially if those 5 years are spent degenerating while someone else cares for the person like a baby.
Nessyfencer
Firstly -rubbish! The councils are nowhere near "skint" as you put it. "Skint" is a 12 year old who has no money for his bag o sweeties. The councils are far, far from that stage. They have so much money stashed away.
Secondly - rubbish! you have no way of knowing if you will want a bullet in your head if it happens to you. Right now you may feel like that, but, as you have no way of know what sufferers feel like, you have no way of knowing what you will feel like should you have the misfotune of getting the disease when you are older.
Secondly - rubbish! you have no way of knowing if you will want a bullet in your head if it happens to you. Right now you may feel like that, but, as you have no way of know what sufferers feel like, you have no way of knowing what you will feel like should you have the misfotune of getting the disease when you are older.
Agreed.
Councils have massive budgets - they just choose to either hoard it or waste it on "managment consultants" huge salaries and on the "beautification" of the "office environment" and all that rubbish.
Someone said on the radio last night that for a family someone having dementia is like them dying twice because they lose their real selves when they develop the illness which causes an almost grieving process & then when they actually die it's the same all over again.
I wouldn't know what to do if something like this affected any of my family, it is truly terrifying.
On another note my boyfriend's grandad had severe dementia for many years and my boyfriend's mum cared for him singlehandedly. There was no help from the NHS or the council or anything, it's not right.
I wouldn't know what to do if something like this affected any of my family, it is truly terrifying.
On another note my boyfriend's grandad had severe dementia for many years and my boyfriend's mum cared for him singlehandedly. There was no help from the NHS or the council or anything, it's not right.
I'm worried by the lack of care for those with dementia, not enough money is pumped into care homes for instance, where it's often not that much of a dignified experience. i.e. dementia sufferers left on their own, in a living-room, smelling, some have pissed themselves and have not been tended to, for a good few hours. This kind of neglect is extremely saddening, whether its a case of incompetence in those working at the care homes, being understaffed etc...but a bit more in the pay packet most certainly wouldn't go amiss. My late grandma for example, i was glad she never had to go into a home, because things like this do happen, care homes and workers do do alot of good, but often there is an underfunding, understaffing etc...and neglect cases crop up, i.e. care residents left in very undignified circumstances...
'Death of a Joyce scholar'
Many dementia sufferers DO pay for their own care, at the cost of £20,000 per year upwards, my mother included!
This link will take you to a petition which aims to change that
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Continuing-Care/
Please add your signature.
Lib North
But yes, if that happens to me, I'd very much like a bullet put in my head.
Zing!
**** that - there's living, and then there's existing.
it's quite a sickening disorder.... which can affect you slowly year by year.
The government tries to give free care but there's always a limit, and the places they offered my grandad were absolute dumps. Costs can get stupid and although the Alzheimer's society try their best, there's only so much they can do to help without extra funding, also the care homes need a serious looking at. Some are god awful and some are like hotels.
And the sufferer's family shouldn't be forced into paying for such poor conditions.
The government tries to give free care but there's always a limit, and the places they offered my grandad were absolute dumps. Costs can get stupid and although the Alzheimer's society try their best, there's only so much they can do to help without extra funding, also the care homes need a serious looking at. Some are god awful and some are like hotels.
And the sufferer's family shouldn't be forced into paying for such poor conditions.
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