Our dementia crisis
Alzheimer’s Australia chief executive officer, Glenn Rees, wrote an opinion piece for ABC online, based on his speech to Australia’s Ageing Population Summit, in Brisbane, arguing that the projected dramatic rise in the number of Australians who will have dementia by 2050 will create a social, health and economic crisis if governments don’t take immediate action.
He argued that dementia is a social condition as well as a medical one which attracts stigma, social isolation and discrimination.
These factors compound the difficulty of the dementia journey that may take place over many years.