The number of people with dementia on the Isle of Wight will nearly double over the next decade, an increase of 39.9%, warns a new report.
The report, commissioned by Alzheimer’s Society, predicts that as our population ages, a higher proportion of people with dementia will have higher care needs for longer, driving up the average amount spent on care.
It shows more than 60% a year of social care costs in England will fall on people with dementia and their families. Previous research by Alzheimer’s Society has shown that someone with dementia will typically have to spend £100,000 on their care. Many are forced to sell their homes to pay for it.
With the number of people living with dementia set to almost double by 2030, Alzheimer’s Society’s call ahead of the general election, from its Fix Dementia Care campaign, is for all political parties to commit to radically reform dementia care. The charity says that it should be funded like other public services, such as the NHS and education, where the cost is shared across society, protecting individuals and their families from the devastating costs of specialist dementia care.
Nick O’Donohue, Alzheimer’s Society Area Manager for the Isle of Wight, says:
“Dementia is heart-breaking for families. It’s not right that those going through it have to battle to get the care they need on top of battling the disease.
“From the working mum struggling to find hundreds of pounds every week to ‘top up’ her mum’s council-funded care home place, to the woman who had to sell her home of 50 years to pay for her husband’s care – families affected by dementia are already at breaking point. With costs set to treble in the next two decades, how on earth will they cope?
“The cost of dementia care is too much for an individual to bear. It should be spread between us – just like schools, the NHS and other public services. Every party must go into this election with a solid plan to radically reform dementia care. Families in crisis need action, and they need it now.”
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Alzheimer’s Society has launched its manifesto ahead of the general election, ‘Demanding action on dementia’.
It calls for 3 commitments from the next government:
- Radically reform dementia care to address the specific needs of people with dementia, ending the daily injustice they, and their families, face in accessing the good quality care to which they are entitled.
- Ensure that people with dementia can participate in their communities on the same basis as everyone else.
- Close the research funding gap between dementia and other disease areas to ensure new treatments and life-changing care interventions are available to everyone living with dementia, as soon as possible.
Nick O’Donohue says…The cost of dementia care is too much for an individual to bear. It should be spread between us
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may I remind Nick O’Donohue, Alzheimer’s Society Area Manager for the Isle of Wight, that I work hard each day to support myself and to ensure that I can enjoy the fruits of my labour enhancing my life and to save for a rainy day – I am not interested in seeing more of my hard earned cash taken from me to pay for others, no matter what the reason.
Perhaps he would like to stop trying to decide how my money, that I earn is spent.
If there weren’t so many freeloaders, spongers, timewasters, layabouts and dossers, taking up so much of the NHS time, then there would
be more funding available for this type of disease.
No, I do not see why I should be expected to pay more and more of my money, that I earn for myself, (which I might add, isn’t even the national average wage), just to support others.
I do not own a property – yet he expects me to pay out for others care – I have a polite answer for that.
“No, I do not see why I should be expected to pay more and more of my money, that I earn for myself, (which I might add, isn’t even the national average wage), just to support others.”
with that attitude, I hope that neither you or a familly member have the bad luck to suffer from dementia.
I would hate that you found yourself the position of needing financial help to support someone with dementia, only for everyone else to take the same attitude as you do.
daemy..
that is just the exact sort of pathetic attempt at guilt tripping I expected from posters like you.
I earn barely enough to cover my living expenses – i don’t even own a car. Perhaps, as you are advocating, impoverishing hard working taxpayers further, to pay higher wages, to healthcare managers etc, that already earn far more than I do, that you put your money where your mouth is and pay more yourself.
fed up with do gooders, that rinse charities for significant amounts of money in wages, advocating the rinsing of taxpayers for more money, with scant regard as to the impact it has on those who are expected to pay.
in addition to my other post….
the government spent £45 million on nanny state project between 2005 and 2018….
china got £7.9m – of which £6.6 million was spent on a ‘research unit’ to reduce the amount of salt housewives add while cooking.
india got £2.2m – of which £1.5million to send texts to its citizens urging them to drink less.
Chile received £300,000 to evaluate its sugar tax
Bangladeshi imams were given £800,000 to preach against tobacco
£44.6million of UK aid was shared between 35 projects in 47 countries involving interventions targeting smoking, drinking, eating and sedentary behaviour
taken from Mark Tovey, author of the IEA’s ‘Nanny State on Tour’ report.
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As I stated earlier, I am not paying out more of my money, when I see wasters clogging up the NHS and nothing done about it and misallocation
of UK taxpayers money like the above.
mr o’donohue is forgetting one thing…
those falsely claiming benefits and never working won’t be contributing in his plans, yet will no doubt be accessing services later on – why should we subsidise these lazy spongers.