Dear All,
ADFM with
the Ministry of Health (MOH) is commemorating World Alzheimer's Month under the
Theme "Every
3 Second - Someone Develops Dementia" on 8 and 9 September at Atria Shopping Gallery, Damansara
Jaya - complete with awareness talks, caregivers forum, a performance by
the Clap and Tap Children Orchestra Malaysia, Drum Circle for Wellness, Free
Health Screenings, and a Memory Walk. A
detailed Program will be announced soon. We are counting on you to join
us, no matter your age or ability and capability, to help advance the
awareness, care and support for people living with Alzheimer's, Dementia &
their caregivers and families – SAVE THE
DATE.
Sharing with you herewith is the Advance New
Release from Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI):
Women
contribute over 58 billion hours globally per year to caring for people with
dementia, yet receive no wage.
Alzheimer’s
Disease International & Karolinska Institutet report shows disproportionate
number of women are tasked with the role of informal dementia carer in
households globally:
·
Women contribute 71% of informal dementia care hours
·
Informal dementia care provided is equivalent to 40 million full time
workers
·
Every three seconds someone in the world develops dementia
·
Dementia became a trillion-dollar disease in 2018
·
Employers and labour laws need to adapt to increasing numbers of
employees with a care giving role
London, 4
July 2018 – Women continue to be disproportionately affected by dementia
as they provide 71% of informal dementia care hours globally, according to a
report out today from Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) and the Karolinska Institutet.
The ADI
report, Global estimates of informal care, from lead author
Anders Anders Wimo of the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society
at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, revealed that the annual global number
of informal care hours provided to people with dementia living at home was
about 82 billion hours. Women contribute 58 billion (71%) of these
hours, highlighting the continued disproportionate gender impact of dementia.
Paola
Barbarino, CEO of ADI, says, “This report reveals not only the huge
cost to society of providing informal care but the disproportionate impact of
dementia on women; as women provide a substantial proportion of informal care.
Because of this, women are more likely to reduce their work hours to part time,
interrupt careers, or stop work completely, to be able to provide care to
someone living with dementia.
“Not only
is there a gender imbalance in informal dementia care, but more women live with
dementia than men, the prevalence is higher for women than for men; women are
more at risk of developing dementia and the symptoms they live with are often
more severe."
“Looking
forward, employers and labour laws will need to adapt to increasing numbers of
employees with an informal care giving role as the number of people living with
dementia increases globally.”
Every
three seconds someone develops dementia – yet most people with dementia do not
receive a diagnosis or support. Today, almost 50 million people worldwide are
living with dementia. As populations continue to age, the prevalence of
dementia is expected to increase to 152 million people by 2050.
Cost of
care for informal caregivers is undoubtedly a complex area but regardless of
how the costs are expressed and calculated, it is obvious that the contribution
of informal caregivers is substantial. Most informal caregivers are family
members and many caregivers express positive experiences in this situation.
However, being an informal caregiver can also be stressful in terms of coping,
depression, impact on social networks and work patterns and morbidity.
Anders
Wimo, from Karolinska Institutet says, “This report reveals the
cost of caring for people with dementia is a substantial, yet people with
dementia rely a lot on help from an informal carer who receives no paid wage or
salary. The major providers of dementia care are the families of the person
living with dementia but with different patterns of care in different parts of
the world.”
In ADI’s
2015 World Alzheimer Report, it estimated the global societal economic impact
of dementia to be $US818 billion, a figure now (2018) surpassing $US1 trillion
per year.
The Global
estimates of informal care report presents global estimates of
informal care hours, compares the global distribution of caregiver time
estimates, with that of costs, and highlights gender patterns in informal
caregivers.
ADI chair
Glenn Rees says, “It is high time governments around the world gave a
higher priority to training, and to flexible respite and home-based services,
to better support the invaluable informal work of carers.”
