| | |
| | |
 | You and Yours - Transcript BBC Radio 4 |
| |
| Print This Page |
| |
| |
| TX: 27.02.07 - The real cost of dementia PRODUCER: LIZ BARCLAY |
| |
| THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. BARCLAY Now a new report warns that Britain's facing a dementia crisis unless a master plan is put in place now. The research by scientists at the London School of Economics and the Institute of Psychiatry for the Alzheimer's Society paints an alarming picture. Caring for people with dementia already costs the UK almost £2 million an hour but the research shows that the number of people diagnosed is set to sore over the next 40 years as people live longer; by the year 2050 there could be as many as 1.7 million people living with dementia in this country. Our disability reporter Carolyn Atkinson brought together Sue Whitcombe whose husband has Alzheimer's disease with the author's report - with the report's author Professor Martin Knapp, who explained the groundbreaking findings. KNAPP What this report tries to do is for the first time give us a solid estimate of the numbers of people with dementia in the UK, not just in total but by type of illness, by age group and gender and so on. Secondly, we've been able to take those numbers and then to estimate how many people there will be with dementia in different local authorities, different parts of the country; what sort of living setting they're in, whether they're in their own homes, in residential care. And then what we've also tried to do, another new finding, is to attach reliable costs to the services that people are currently getting. And I think in that way we have - not a complete but a more complete picture of dementia services today and that's the basis for going forward in discussion. ATKINSON So at the moment we have 700,000, now you've collected a lot of information and you've predicted, if you like, how the numbers of cases are going to increase, what figures have you come up with? KNAPP We would estimate that by 2021, for example, there'll be just under a million people with dementia but by 2051 it'll be 1.75, one and three quarter million people with dementia, a substantial increase on today's numbers. ATKINSON You've costed that for the first time, what have you found? KNAPP Well what we've found is we've tried to cost all of the services that people would get, whether in their own homes or in institutional settings, we've tried to attach a cost to the care that families provide; they often provide services which would otherwise be needed from health and social care staff, we try to estimate the costs that families bear in terms of having to give up employment, we've tried to estimate the cost to the Exchequer of people not paying taxes on that employment and so on. So the total cost is about £17 billion each year in the UK, which is too big a number to understand. ATKINSON You're saying that's £46 million per day? KNAPP You worked it out - that's good. The point is that we are talking about a substantial amount of money. Although the numbers of people with dementia are increasing many people would say that that amount that is currently being spent is still nothing like enough given the unmet needs that many people have, and given the burdens that families have to bear in many cases. ATKINSON Now also with us is Sue Whitcombe, who's joining us on the line from Shrewsbury. Sue is a carer and we've been speaking to her over the last couple of years. Her husband David has Alzheimer's Disease. Sue how have things been changing in terms of David's condition? WHITCOMBE We are now having a sudden deterioration in his understanding of the world around him - understanding of danger, uninhibited behaviour. So I think we've now seen the optimum effect of the tablets and now I think we are beginning the downslide - permanent downside. ATKINSON How is that affecting you? WHITCOMBE Well quite dramatically - it did affect me. In the earlier stages you almost think well they're okay, they're just a bit vague and a bit forgetful and you think surely they can - they can understand this. And now it is quite obvious that David is quite dramatically ill. And I find it, in a way, easier to make allowances but obviously my life is now changing, I am finding I have a gut instinct that I can't leave him on his own for too long. So my life is narrowing but at the same time I'm having to try and keep my social life going but only in the little windows when David is actually with carers or takes his daily nap - I then go out and make the most of my free time. ATKINSON Professor Knapp, with this report you've come up with a series of recommendations, can you run us through what you're saying should now happen? KNAPP Well there are seven key recommendations that we make in the report. The first one is to - just to raise the profile of dementia and to make dementia a national priority for health and social care. Secondly, that to support that we think there's a need for increased funding of dementia research, research in this area has been terribly under-funded relative to other health areas. Third, we think there's a need for improving the skill base of health and social care professionals. Carers are obviously key to the lives of people with dementia, family carers and so on, and it's absolutely clear they need greater support, so recommendation five is to guarantee carer support packages. Recommendation six is to focus on who pays for care; we think there's a need for a national debate about the balance of responsibility for paying for care today and particularly in the future. And then finally we just feel there's a need for greater attention being paid to dementia models, comprehensive models of care, for people with dementia. ATKINSON Sue, do you feel that dementia is not a national priority at the moment? WHITCOMBE No I don't think it is. If people are educated to realise it can happen to anyone at any age really, I mean although it's prevalent in older people, young - people of 30 and 40 can have a dementia as a result of possible brain damage as a result of an accident. Things such as heart disease and cancer - they're constantly promoted and money is ploughed into research for them because in some cases some of those illnesses can be cured but dementia is not seen as an illness that can be cured. So if we constantly update research and plough extra money into funding research eventually perhaps a vaccine or even tablets that can reverse it could be found and then obviously the government would not be funding quite so much in-service care. ATKINSON Do you feel that there are big variations and people's needs are not met in some areas whereas they might be others? WHITCOMBE Well I've certainly spoken to many carers at national Alzheimer's conferences and some of them are amazed at the level of support I receive and how little there is in their own area, so it's good to meet together so they can go back to their PCTs and say look this is what we need, this is what Shropshire has. And what I would like to see personally is a national framework setting up using any PCTs good ideas, amalgamating into a national framework, a minimum standard, of dementia care to be built upon to different needs in different parts of the country. ATKINSON Professor Knapp, if Patricia Hewitt or Ivan Lewis were sitting in front of you now what would you say the first thing they have to go off and do would be? KNAPP For me it seems to me that focusing on dementia as a topic in its own right and getting a national - giving it a national priority, giving it a national debate around dementia rather than around older people more generally or mental health more generally, focusing on dementia because there are very particular needs and issues in that area that I think deserve urgent attention. BARCLAY Professor Martin Knapp from the London School of Economics and Sue Whitcombe, who wanted to stress that being her husband's carer allows her to repay the years of hard work that he put in to provide a good family life. Back to the You and Yours homepage The BBC is not responsible for external websites |
| About the BBC | Help | Terms of Use | Privacy & Cookies Policy |
