Dementia alone costs £23billion a year

WHAT IS DEMENTIA?

Dementia is a syndrome that is characterised by an ongoing decline of the brain and its abilities. It is usually caused by damage to the structure of the brain and can cause both memory loss and personality changes. It usually affects people over 65. The number living with the condition is expected to double in the next 30 years due to an ageing population. In most cases, there is no cure and symptoms will get worse over time. However, there are treatments that can help patients cope better with their symptoms.

One million Britons will be victims of dementia within 15 years, according to a shocking report from Oxford University. The astounding toll of Alzheimer’s disease and similar conditions is much higher than expected and will put huge strain on the health service over the coming decades unless a cure is found. Already the knock-on effects of dementia cost the British economy twice as much as cancer. However, for every £1 spent on cancer research, only 8p is spent on dementia.

The study by Oxford University and the Alzheimer’s Research Trust found that the total cost to the economy of dementia  is £23billion  which far exceeds the £12billion total for cancer and £8billion for heart disease, even though these diseases attract more funding. The huge bill is made up of NHS and social care costs, and around half of it refers to the unpaid care that family members have to provide. To make things worse, the number of patients is much higher than thought  -  at 822,000, with the total expected to surge past a million by 2025.

It means that each dementia patient costs the economy £27,647 per year. A cancer patient costs five times less.