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Dementia Sufferers to Increase by 70% within 20 Years
 

By Tim Ross, The Telegraph


November 10, 2010


United Kingdom

 

The number of elderly people with dementia will increase by 70 per cent to more than 1 million in the next 20 years, according to official projections.

Photo: The Telegraph

As England ’s population ages, soaring numbers of people will die in nursing homes with dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, a report for the NHS has found.

The number of elderly people with dementia will increase by 70 per cent to more than 1 million in the next 20 years, according to official projections.

Researchers warned that care home staff would need more specialist training to cope with the “massive” increase in patients with dementia, many of whom cannot communicate effectively with their nurses.

The findings reinforce the scale of the challenge the country’s health and social care system faces as people live longer and require increasingly specialised support.

The study, published by the National End of Life Care Intelligence Network, an NHS programme, analysed figures for the number of deaths recorded with senility, Alzheimer’s and dementia as an underlying or contributory cause.

An estimated 614,000 people in England currently have dementia, representing 1.2% of the population.

But by the 2030s this figure will rise by 72% to an estimated 1,055,000 people with dementia, 1.8% of the population of England . The increases will vary between 44% in London and 84% in the East Midlands .

People with dementia are far more likely to die in care homes than those without, who are more likely to die in hospital, according to the study.

Claire Henry, director of the National End of Life Care Programme, said patients with these illnesses were often far less able to communicate and understand nurses and other staff whose job it was to help them.

“Care home staff need to be given appropriate training and support in both end of life care in general and the particular challenges of caring for people with dementia,” she said.

“Homes need professionals who can assess a person’s needs and support him or her in advance care planning.”

The number of people aged 75 and older in England is projected to increase from 4 million in 2008 to 7.2 million in 2033.

 


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