What is the future of dementia care?

With the rate of people living with dementia increasing at an exponential rate, aged care providers are preparing to ensure their organisation has the capacity to provide optimal care.

Helga Merl, Nurse Practitioner Senior Manager at integratedliving Australia is at the forefront of dementia care. Akolade, organiser of the Dementia Strategy Summit, caught up with Ms Merl to get her thoughts on the issues at hand. They asked Ms Merl “In your opinion, why is Dementia at the forefront of the public agenda now?”

According to Ms Merl there are a number of reasons why dementia has been identified as the 9th National Health Priority area and come to the forefront of the public agenda in Australia.

“In recent years we have seen a large rise in the numbers of people with dementia in Australia. This is because we are better, but not fantastic, at diagnosing dementia, the projection rates are more refined and realistic and finally that our population is ageing,” Ms Merl says.

With the biggest risk factor for dementia being increasing age, as our Australian population ages and our population pyramid is turned on its head, the number of people with dementia rises exponentially. Currently that equates to someone diagnosed with dementia every 6 minutes in Australia or 175,000 Australians diagnosed annually.

“There is still no cure for dementia and with our ageing population and advances in medical science that have decreased mortality rates of other conditions, dementia is now the third leading cause of death in Australia.

“The profound impact that dementia has on the individual, carers and families and the community means that those living with dementia and the general community expect that the multidisciplinary team understands dementia and can help those seeking information and supports,” says Ms Merl.

“People with dementia and their families and carers wish for an early and timely diagnosis of dementia. Early diagnosis allows for the trial of therapy and medical treatments for reversible conditions. Consumer Directed Care plans and Advance Care Planning can be made whilst decision-making capacity remains. The individual and family can adjust, through provision of information, education, counselling and access to services, which may also delay symptom progression and institutionalisation. Again, it is expected that the multidisciplinary team can mobilise these supports.”

“Dementia now is everybody’s business,” Ms Merl adds. Over half of all consumers of aged care services have a diagnosable dementia. Dementia needs to be at the forefront so that aged care services understand the imperative of building the capacity of their organisations, environments and staff to provide best practice dementia care as core business, not an optional extra.”

Hear more from Helga Merl and other aged care leaders and dementia advocates at Akolade’s Dementia Strategy Summit in conjunction with Alzheimer’s Australia NSW.

To find out more about the Dementia Strategy Summit contact Akolade on 02 9247 6000 or visit the event website.

* Alzheimer’s Australia Key facts and statistics 2015