Dementia burden: ‘race against time’

The number of people with dementia in Australia is expected to rise by one third to 400,000 in less than a decade, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s (AIHW) report, released last week.

The report Dementia in Australia estimates the number of people living with dementia will rise from 298,000 today to 900,000 by 2050. It also estimates there are 23,900 Australians, under the age of 65, living with the condition.

Glenn Rees, Alzheimer’s Australia chief executive, says the report reiterated the need to tackle the dementia epidemic now.

“Investment in dementia research is the key to identifying those at risk of dementia and developing new treatments,” he says. “Yet, dementia research is grossly underfunded compared to other chronic diseases.”

Alzheimer’s Australia has launched phase two of the Fight Dementia Campaign – Towards a World Without Dementia, to propose the federal government commit $200 million over five years in the 2013 Budget for dementia research.

“This is necessary to build research capacity for the future, fund research projects and promote the translation of research into practice.

“It is now a race against time to expand access to community care services and particularly respite care to enable people with dementia to stay at home for as long as possible and to improve access to quality residential care,” Mr Rees says.

Did you know…?

Dementia was the third leading single cause of death in 2010, accounting for 6% of all deaths.
An average of 25 people died each day from dementia in 2010.
Twice as many women died from dementia compared with men (6,083 and 2,920 respectively).
For people aged 65 years and over, dementia is the second leading cause of overall burden of disease and the leading cause of disability burden.
There were about 200,000 informal carers of people with dementia living in the community last year.