Dementia costs Scotland £1.4 billion – charity calls for dementia to be made a priority

EMBARGO: 00.01 27 FEBRUARY 2007

To: News/Health/Community Editors

Alzheimer Scotland today welcomed the publication of a new report, Dementia UK, which estimates the cost of dementia in the UK as over £17bn, and in Scotland as £1.4bn. The organisation called for dementia to be made a national priority in Scotland as a matter of urgency.

Jim Jackson, Alzheimer Scotland Chief Executive, said,
“Our population is ageing. By 2031 there will be 75% more people with dementia in Scotland. Alzheimer Scotland is calling on the Scottish Executive and the Scottish Parliament to:

• face up to the inevitable growing numbers of people with dementia
• make dementia a national priority for health and social care policy.
• There is no time to lose. We must look at what resources are needed now and in the future. Crucially, we must make sure resources are spent most effectively. Dementia care must be prioritised in the forthcoming spending review.”

The report shows the average cost per person with dementia as £25,472. 41% of the cost is due to accommodation, 36% to informal care, 15% to social service spending and 8% to NHS spending.

The report also highlights the need for more dementia research. Dementia accounted for 11.2% of all years lived with disability among people 60 and over; more than stroke (9.5%), musculoskeletal disorders (8.9%), cardiovascular disease (5.0%) and all forms of cancer (2.4%). Yet it is not given research priority - only 1.4% of research papers since 2002 are about dementia, compared with 23.5% on cancer, 17.6% on cardiovascular disease, 6.9% on musculoskeletal disorders and 3.1% on stroke.

Jim Jackson said,
“We need to invest in more research urgently. We have to invest now to save later – it’s urgent that we find better treatments, more effective ways of caring and ways of preventing or delaying the onset of dementia. Because it is an illness mainly of old age, even something that delayed it by a few years could significantly reduce the number of people developing dementia in their lifetime.”

ENDS
Please give Alzheimer Scotland’s Freephone 24hr Dementia Helpline telephone number: 0808 808 3000 and our website address: www.alzscot.org at the end of articles.

Contact details:
Maureen Thom, Information Manager, tel 0131 243 1453, mthom@alzscot.org
Jim Jackson, Chief Executive, tel 0131 243 1453, mob 07747 025 041, jjackson@alzscot.org
Kate Fearnley, Policy Director, tel 0131 243 1453, mob 07791 028317, kfearnley@alzscot.org

Further information

• The report was written by researchers at Health Service Research and Population Department, King’s College London, Institute of Psychiatry and Personal Social Services Research Unit, London School of Economics and Political Science, for the Alzheimer's Society of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. For more information about the report contact Gayle Wing, Alzheimer's Society, 0207 306 0606, GWing@alzheimers.org.uk
• There are 58,000 people with dementia in Scotland in 2007, 1,400 of whom are under 65.
• In 2031 there will be 102,000 people with dementia in Scotland.
• 54% of people with dementia have Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia. About 30% have either vascular dementia or mixed dementia. Dementia with Lewy bodies, frontotemporal dementia and Parkinson’s dementia make up 11%.
• Almost two thirds of people with dementia (63.5%) live in their own home and just over one third in a care home (36.5%).

Alzheimer Scotland is Scotland’s foremost charity working for people with dementia and their carers. The Alzheimer's Society is a separate charity, doing similar work in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Alzheimer Scotland:

• speaks out for the rights and concerns of people with dementia and their carers;
• operates services on over 60 sites throughout Scotland providing practical services such as day, evening and weekend centres, home care and befriending and carers' support services;
• provides the 24 hour national freephone Dementia Helpline (0808 808 3000);
• provides the website www.alzscot.org;
• supports a network of over 40 carers' support groups;
• provides information to carers, professionals and people with dementia;
• publishes leaflets, booklets, reports and a quarterly newsletter keeping carers and professionals up-to-date;
• has a research programme.