Big increase in senile disorders by 1991?

Press, 6 March 1984, Page 16

Big increase in senile disorders by 1991?

By OLIVER RIDDELL By 1991 there could be 26,000 people in New Zealand suffering from Alzheimers disease and other senile disorders, according to a report from the Extramural Hospital and Mental Health Foundation in Auckland.

An Alzheimers communication network has been set up because of the number of people with the condition who are not getting enough help.

The network was given impetus at a recent seminar on the'condition at the Extramural Hospital, and also the report of the Social Advisory Council — “The Extra Years” — published recently. This report forecast a very rapid growth during the next 20 years in the v over-80’s population, which is the section of the population in which senile dementias are most common.

The population projections led to the expectation that there would be 26,000 sufferers by 1991, an increase of 35 per cent on the 1981 figures, said the

research officer for the Mental Health Foundation, Dr Hilary Haines. There could be 33,000 by the year 2001, an increase of 64 per cent on the 1981 figures.

Since services in many parts of the country dealing with senile disorders were already overtaxed, these projected increases gave grave cause for concern, she said.

A survey was being done of the adequacy of services in Auckland for sufferers and their families, and the result would be published soon.

As well, Northern Television had produced a documentary programme on Alzheimers disease which would be screened later this year, Dr Haines said.

The recent seminar brought together health professionals working with the condition and the families of sufferers. It set up the network to deal with each of the three stages of the condition:

• Supportive care — early diagnosis was essential to enable families to prepare

for the difficulties that lay ahead, and to avoid feelings of guilt and lack of understanding of the sufferer’s failing memory.

Shared care facilities in hospitals, attendant care and mutual support groups would help these families to cope, Dr Haines said. They and the professionals who helped them had an urgent need for better information. • Safe care — as the disease progressed, it became increasingly difficult for families to cope with a sufferer at home, in spite of the best support. With failing memory, patients could not longer orientate themselves, and so could easily become lost, Dr Haines said. The consequences could be tragic. At this intermediate stage, when the patient was still mobile, provision needed to be made for some form of confinement. But there were no such safecare facilities except in psychiatric hospitals providing semi-secure wards.

• Total nursing care — inexorably patients lost their mobility and speech

and became bed-ridden. The need at this final stage was for full nursing care in hospital, Dr Haines said. There had to be much more provision for this during the next 20 years as the population aged. Some support groups had already been established and others were being contemplated, she said. Alzheimers disease is a terminal one, whose cause is unknown. It is difficult to diagnose and needs extensive examination by a competent neurologist.

It is a progressively degenerative disease of the brain which begins insidiously and produces dementia in later life. In effect, the brain gradually atrophies and shrinks, nerve cells disappear, and other nerve cells change their structure.

The disease may take anything from 12 months to 18 years to run its course.

As it progresses, patients develop serious speech impairment, with progressive loss of memory as well.