Dementia strategy - Prioritising the invisible affliction

The report presented to a conference on dementia at Trinity College yesterday poses a major challenge for Government.

It is already costing about €1.6 billion annually to treat and look after the 41,700 people afflicted with dementia.

Nearly half of the cost is borne by the families. More than half — or 26,104 — of those people are being looked after at home, while the rest live in long-term care. There are an estimated 50,000 family carers in this country looking after somebody with at least one of the six specified symptoms of dementia.