Dementia spending set to skyrocket to $21b by 2030 as wave of new patients rely on care.
Dementia spending is set to soar in the coming decades with experts predicting $21 billion will be needed by 2030. Key points:
Australia will have 1 million people living with dementia by 2050
25,000 Australians live with early onset dementia today
Alzheimer's Australia says huge economic and social challenges will flow from wave of new patients
Huge costs associated with training more aged care staff
This is four times the $5 billion spent on the care of people living with dementia today.
The number of dementia patients is expected to reach nearly 400,000 by 2020, according to projections from the Federal Government's Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
By 2050, it is estimated Australia will have 1 million people living with dementia.
"I don't think Australia is prepared for the huge challenges, the economic and the social challenges that we will face," said Alzheimer's Australia chief executive Carol Bennett.
The organisation is looking for positive signs in next week's federal budget.
"We certainly want to see some investment in care, ensuring that people who are having to access aged care and health care because of their dementia are actually getting adequate services," Ms Bennett said.
If the rate of growth of dementia patients continues, in 50 years it will be the number one expenditure in the health budget — up from eighth position in the early 2000s.
Part of those costs will go to training the 240,000 workers involved in direct aged care roles.
Alzheimer Australia Victoria facilitator of learning Wendy Henderson said there needed to be new ways to keep people engaged in the industry.
"We're only touching the work that could be done in our society," she said.
Ms Henderson teaches aged care workers the Montessori Method, which focuses on restoring the functions of dementia patients by concentrating on the individuals' strengths and abilities.
For example, familiar items are used to help a patient recover some of their memory and reading ability.
"It's all about quality of life," Ms Henderson said.
'No way' Australia is ready for wave of dementia patients
But the program is also an illustration of how dementia costs are rising — every time aged care workers attend instruction sessions like this, it costs money.
These frontline dementia carers are unequivocal in their assessment of whether Australia is ready for the coming wave of dementia patients.
"No way. I think there's so much more to be learned," said Janice Mendoza, a diversional therapist who works with dementia patients.
"[Patients] are not just there to have their personal needs looked after. They have life ... they're still members of the community."
Then there are the costs that Alzheimer's Australia has yet to put figure on — except to estimate that they are big — to the economy of workers leaving employment due to dementia.
There are an estimated 25,000 Australians living with early onset dementia, diagnosed before they reached the age of 65.
Many of them are forced to stop working with the diagnosis and, in many cases, their spouse also has to curtail and end their work to become their primary carer.
