Improving services and support for older people with mental health ...

Improving services and support for older people with mental health problems
The economic costs of delirium are very high:
n On average, it doubles the length of hospital stay 88 and costs an additional $2500
(£1275) per hospital patient. 89
2.6 Dementia
Dementia is a term for a range of progressive, terminal diseases including Alzheimer’s
disease, vascular dementia, fronto-temporal dementia (including Pick’s disease) and
dementia with Lewy bodies. All facts and figures are drawn from the Alzheimer’s
Society report, Dementia UK (2007), 90 unless indicated otherwise.
Prevalence increases rapidly with age. Rates double every five years from age
30 onward.
n
Five per cent of people aged 65 and over have dementia, rising to 20 per cent of
people aged 80 and over and 33 per cent of people aged 95 and over.
n Two per cent of all people with dementia develop it before the age of 65.
n
Two per cent of people with dementia are from black and ethnic minority
(BME) groups.
People with Down’s syndrome are four times more likely to have dementia and to
develop it at earlier ages.
n
Three per cent of people with Down’s syndrome in their 30s have dementia, rising
to 40 per cent in their 50s and 55 per cent in their 60s. 91
Nearly two thirds (64 per cent) of older people with dementia are cared for in the
community, mostly by unpaid carers. More than one third (36 per cent) of older people
with dementia live in care homes. Dementia affects 50-80 per cent of people who live
in residential, nursing and ‘elderly mentally infirm’ (EMI) homes.
Dementia has terrible consequences for older people and their friends and families:
n
n
It accounts for more years of disability than almost any other condition, including
stroke, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
It accounts for 10 per cent of deaths in men over 65, and 15 per cent of deaths in
women over 65. Delaying onset by five years would halve the number of deaths in
the UK due to dementia to 30,000 a year.
n Up to half of people with dementia also have depression. 92 Approximately 20-25
per cent have major depression and 20-30 per cent have minor or sub-threshold
depression. 93 People with both dementia and depression have higher rates of
disability and decline and higher rates of hospitalisation than people with
dementia alone. 94
n A third of people who care for an older person with dementia have depression. 95
Yet dementia is often undiagnosed and under-treated.
n Fewer than half of people with dementia will ever receive a diagnosis. 96
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