In three decades, the number of people with dementia will increase sharply. However, if actions are planned to prevent the situation, the current context is very worrying. Our societies are indeed not prepared for such an increase.
Maximize the benefits of independent old age
According to a study published in the journal The Lancet in January 2022, no less than two million French will be affected by a dementia disorder by 2050, an increase of 82% since 2019. It must be said that baby boomers are gradually entering the third age. However, advances in medicine make us live longer and therefore make us addicted longer. Unfortunately, we also have to deal with diseases that used to kill.
In France, goods and services for the elderly now represent a booming market. Progress is therefore present, with innovations in mobility assistance, home care and remote monitoring. The aim is to benefit as much as possible from independent old age. However, these means make it possible to meet the needs of dementia in its early stages. On the other hand, this is no longer the case when anxiety and confusion become very heavy symptoms, and therefore unmanageable from a distance.
Family caregivers at risk
The increase in cases of dementia also raises the question of family caregivers, more specifically with regard to their condition. Some people will accompany their loved one until the end, but may also fall ill. In other words, caregivers can be influenced by the disease of the relative in question, its evolution and its end. Here, emotional attachment and family and social context take into account, without forgetting that to keep a person with cognitive impairment at home, it is necessary to have time and money.
Sometimes the caregivers can even forget themselves and some are also at the age of dependency. Let us also mention the fact that some individuals may predecease the person they are caring foras an article published by Slate written for the European Union’s Union is Strength competition.
In 2018, a BVA survey stated that 82% of caregivers spend at least twenty hours per week on average to their loved ones. However, 37% of those questioned declared that they did not benefit from any outside help even though they themselves were quite old. In addition, monitoring systems create anxiety in caregiverswith the tendency to continually stare at camera screens.
Should human resources be strengthened?
and Europe, the monument project intended to give caregivers a break, and therefore to preserve them. Thus, Odense houses are tested in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. This makes it possible to reduce the burden on caregivers, but also to offer activities to allow better living together on a daily basis. These structures also include several technologies such as GPS watches and other fall detectors.
If the technological means to give more independence and comfort to people with dementia deserve attention, the significant loss of dignity and well-being is undeniable when autonomy is no longer possible, due to a more intense presence of symptoms.
What if in reality, true innovation was embodied by human means? In nursing homes, people with dementia are sometimes denigrated and support is almost only medicinal. Indeed, the goal is to calm these people who are very often anxious. However, the lack of personnel would represent the real heart of the problem. For many professionals, machines and other technologies, although very useful, will never replace humans, their ability to reassure and their expertise.
