Alzheimer services 'facing crisis'

A crisis is developing in the field of Alzheimer care with the number of people awaiting services having increased by 33 per cent to 1,000 in the last year, the Alzheimer Society of Ireland said today.

The society warned the Government that further cuts to funding for Alzheimer services will put severe pressure on those providing care and see some of the 44,000 people living here with dementia and their carers left without access to basic community supports.

In its pre-budget submission the society called for no cuts to funding in 2011, the protection of community services, for waiting lists for the 1,000 people to be cleared, to ensure regional case management for 4,400 younger people living with dementia and for a public campaign to promote risk reduction of dementia.

The society said it understood the economic difficulties facing the Government but warned that failing to invest in the area now will have huge financial consequences for the State as demand for long term care will inevitably increase.

It estimates that because of Ireland's ageing population the number of people living with dementia will increase from 44,000 to more than 70,000 in the next 16 years.

University of Limerick economist Dominic Trepel, who wrote a paper for the society entitled An Economic Perspective of Dementia Care in Ireland, said Ireland spends only half the OECD average on dementia services despite facing the largest growth of the condition of any European country.

"The economic cost of dementia ranks higher than stroke, heart disease and cancer combined," he said. "However, health care allocations for dementia continue to be substantially lower than each of these individual disease groups."

Mr Trepel said there was an over reliance on carers in Ireland and that burnout of these carers was a significant threat.

"Should those carers of approx 30 per cent of people on Alzheimer Society waiting lists reach burnout, the state could potentially be facing at least €12m in costs for providing additional residential care services in 2011," he said.

The society said that two in three carers were providing care for more than 12 hours per day and that three out of four reported feeling stressed and overwhelmed on a regular basis.