‘In Canada someone develops dementia every five minutes’

TORONTO - Dementia cases are rising alarmingly in Canada and the mental disease is set to wreak financial and social havoc on its society, warns a report Monday.

Released by the Alzheimer Society here to mark Alzheimer Awareness Month, the report Rising Tide: The Impact of Dementia on Canadian Society says more than 103,700 people in this country of just 34 million population developed dementia in 2008. In the next 30 years, the reports forecasts the dementia cases will touch almost 260,000 each year, with the medical costs increasing ten-fold.

“Today, someone in Canada develops dementia every five minutes. In 30 years, there will be one new case every two minutes,” David Harvey, spokesperson for the project, said in a statement here.

“If nothing changes, this sharp increase in the number of people living with dementia will mean that by 2038, the total costs associated with dementia will reach $153 billion a year. This amounts to a massive cumulative total of $872 billion over this 30-year period,” he said.

In terms of massive social costs, the report says, the hours of care by family members will more than triple from 231 million hours in 2008 to 756 million hours by 2038.

Family caregivers themselves will come under tremendous emotional and health stress, thus posing further burden on the public health system in Canada, the report adds.

Even steps like medical intervention to delay the onset of the dementia by at least years can save Canada a whopping $219 billion in the coming years, the report says.

According to Richard Nakoneczny, chair of the Alzheimer Society of Canada, “More than ever, research is a critical contributor to this change. With an increased investment in research, we will learn more about prevention, possibly even discover a treatment to delay the onset of the disease and reduce its impact substantially.”