Alzheimer’s care a 14-hour job each day

ALMOST two-thirds of people caring for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia spend at least 14 hours a day looking after them, research reveals.

One in four carers had to stop work altogether while more than one in four were forced to reduce the hours they worked.

Launching the study yesterday, the Alzheimer Society of Ireland said it highlighted the need for significantly more support for carers.

There are almost 40,000 people in Ireland caring for people with Alzheimer’s disease/dementia.

The society’s chief executive, Maurice O’Connell, said timely and equitable access to training, financial supports and community-based dementia services, such as respite care, were vital to support the dignity and independence of individuals and families living with dementia.

Despite 56% of the 270 carers surveyed feeling they do not have enough income to look after their loved ones, almost half say they pay for extra help.

The research also found more than one third of patients are in the middle stage of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia when they have major difficulties with memory, concentration, finding belongings, being left alone and washing.

Nearly half of all patients were aged between 75 and 84 years and most live with the person that cares for them. Seventy percent of carers are women.

At the launch in the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland was Canadian mother of two, Brenda Hounam, who has Alzheimer’s disease and spoke about openly of her sadness at the thought of being unable to recognise her children.

Ms Hounam, who is 57, together with singer/song writer, Sara Westbrook, has written One More Memory to remind her son and daughter, Heath and Dallas, of her love for them when the disease progresses and she is no longer able to express her feelings.

“Since being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, everyday is a challenge. Relationships can be difficult to maintain and every daily function that I was previously able to perform so effortlessly has become a mountain that I have to climb on a daily basis,” she said.

“Making a sandwich or getting ready to go out now takes me three times longer,” she said.

“I have learned to be very proactive and to establish routines, implement aids and to do whatever is necessary to function to the best of my ability.”

Between 50% and 70% of all people with dementia are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, a degenerative disease that slowly and progressively destroys brain cells.