Calls to dementia helpline increase by 63%

Calls to Ireland’s only national dementia helpline service have increased by 63% since 2010, and last year was the busiest ever.

In 2015, 4,750 calls were made to the helpline service run by the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, up from 2,907 in 2010.

The service continues to experience an increase in calls as awareness of the condition grows. Almost six out of 10 calls made last year were in relation to people with a confirmed case of dementia.

More than one in 10 (13%) were from people worried about memory issues and their general cognitive health.

Calls from people in the early stages of dementia continue to increase — one in 10 made last year were from people with dementia under the age of 70.

Of the 48,000 people living with dementia in Ireland it is estimated that 4,000 are under the age of 65.

January is usually a busy time for the experienced helpline advisers, with families raising lots of questions and concerns after spending time together over Christmas. This year there was a 50% increase in calls to the helpline between December and January.

The following is a sample of the calls dealt with by the helpline advisers:

• A caller was worried about an elderly parent living alone in a rural area who was paying less attention to personal hygiene, acting out of character, and suffering from delusion;.
• Another caller, whose partner was diagnosed with vascular dementia in the past year and had recently become increasingly verbally aggressive, worried that the behaviour could become physical;
• A caller living with her elderly parent, who was diagnosed with dementia six months previously, was upset because her parent thought her partner was having an affair.

Samantha Taylor, the society’s helpline and information manager, said the calls were wide-ranging and often very emotional.

People called the service after noticing small but significant changes in how a loved one was behaving from day to day.

Ms Taylor said they received calls from people experiencing significant hardship and real distress and often had to spend a lot of time dealing with them.

Often, families felt they were betraying a loved one by talking about what they had seen or heard.

Ms Taylor said the confidential helpline was vital because it provided a safe place for someone to have that first conversation about dementia concerns.

The phonecall often led to callers reaching out to their local health and social care professionals to access supports and services.

“Our helpline workers are trained to provide emotional support as well as provide practical information and signposting to services,” said Ms Taylor.

The society has managed to pick up all the calls made to the service. More trained volunteers have been recruited to deal with the surge in calls over the past five years. They are supported by two full-time staff.

Ms Taylor said that the number of people diagnosed with dementia was expected to increase by 20% over the next five years.

“That’s 11 people a day this year, so it is critical that we can keep this service going,” she said.

The national helpline (1800 341 341), a free and confidential service, is open six days a week — Monday to Friday from 10am to 5pm and Saturday from 10am to 4pm.