$44m commitment to dementia

$44m commitment to dementia

Alzheimers New Zealand welcomes today’s budget announcement of $44m to dementia over the next four years. This funding commitment shows Governments recognition of the looming dementia crisis.

The budget announcement comes as Alzheimers New Zealand enters into its second year of its National Dementia Strategy, launched in May 2010. This authoritive document responds to the collective needs of the wider dementia community, including people with dementia, their carers and family/whanau, dementia support workers and their respective organisations, residential care providers and dementia specific health professionals. The National Dementia Strategy clearly indicates the areas of priority that need to be addressed to better the quality of life for those who face the daily challenge of living with dementia. Its development led to eight action points, some of which have already been implemented, but all require investment in order to be realised.

Alzheimer’s New Zealand national director, Johan Vos, says “Today’s Budget announcement is a step in the right direction. The dementia community has long recognised the need for greater cooperation between all dementia response agencies in order to best prepare New Zealand for the expected ‘epidemic’ of dementia over the coming years. The National Dementia Strategy demonstrated the consistent needs of the sector and identified a practical approach to positive change.

“This commitment from Government adds to that collaboration and we welcome continued investment in order for us to fulfil our promise to people living with dementia in our local communities. Now that we have a significant investment from Government to address the pressing issues of quality care for advanced and acute dementia cases, as well as better supports for carers through respite, we can focus on building better strategies and securing the funding needed to support people living with dementia in the home.”

Alzheimers New Zealand evidenced the economic impact of early admissions to residential care in their thorough analysis of the sector in its 2008 Economic Impact Report. It determined that $62.3m would be saved each year if transition to residential care could be delayed by as little as three months.

“More beds obviously means an increase in capacity, meaning more dementia specialist staff will be needed across the sector. Alzheimers New Zealand is working with our sector partners to ensure that care standards are consistent across the country and meaningful, quality professional development for residential care staff will support this. Specific funding for the residential sector should go a long way to support benchmarking and best practice so that people with dementia are receiving the right care at the right time. “Quality care for people with dementia can be achieved through collaborative processes and a continuum of care, focusing on the person rather than the dementia and responding accordingly. This can only happen if support is accessed at an early stage, further emphasising the need for robust care strategies in the community and a careful transition into residential care.” says Vos.

Dementia is a neurological disease that affects memory, cognition, emotion and reasoning. It is thought that over 43,000 New Zealanders currently have the condition however; these numbers are expected to exceed 76,000 by 2020 and will further double every twenty years.

ENDS

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