September 20th 2006 - Dementia has the stigma in British society today that cancer once had in the 1960s. So says Elizabeth Finn Care who commissioned the Future Foundation research organization to analyse why so few carers of people with dementia seek help and respite from what has been described as the 'enemy within' and a 'ticking time-bomb'.
Just as people wouldn't talk openly about cancer until relatively recently, so today the 'Number 1' taboo subject is dementia with many carers not wanting to admit to having a close family member debilitated by the disease.
The reasons for this culture of denial will go under the spotlight tomorrow - World Alzheimer's Day - at a conference in Bristol when Elizabeth Finn Care, in collaboration with the two Alzheimer's Societies of Bristol and Gloucester, and the Dementia Care Trust, Bristol, presents the findings of the research, and looks for ways of breaking down the barriers so that support offered to carers can be improved.
Future Foundation's key findings showed a range of negative responses among people with dementia and their carers. With poor diagnosis in the first instance, initial denial and ignorance on their part led onto the stigma, real or imagined, within society at large, to eventual isolation and social exclusion. This is compounded by a lack of information and the complexity of the health and social care systems resulting in relatively few seeking the practical help and advice that is available.
At the full-day conference these issues will be developed by a number of speakers including Professor June Andrews, Director, The Dementia Services Development Centre, University of Stirling; Dr Niall Moore, Consultant Psychogeriatrician, Avon and Weston Mental Health Partnership Trust; Dr Ian Greaves, GP and Hon. Senior Lecturer, Wolverhampton University School of Health, and Hon. Associate Professor at the University of Kentucky, USA; and Jonathan Welfare, Chief Executive of Elizabeth Finn Care.
The day's programme also includes three workshops, an appreciation of a new Alzheimer's Society's initiative, 'Living With Dementia' and an Elizabeth Finn Care 'case study' - 'Perspectives of a User and a Carer'.
Commenting on the research, Jonathan Welfare, Chief Executive of Elizabeth Finn Care said, "As part of our investment in dementia care we wanted to find out what were the practical and real barriers to accessing help. Research from the Future Foundation has thrown up a series of challenges for providers of care, GPs, social services, and government.
"We all remember the bad old days of some forty years or more ago when no-one would speak about cancer, either in private, or in public where there was no national debate. Consequentially, there was an ignorance and lack of will to address the issues. Today, for 'cancer' read 'dementia'."
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NOTE TO EDITORS
Elizabeth Finn Care works with the Dementia Care Trust in Bristol to provide support at home, counselling and day care for people with dementia and their carers.
www.dct.org.uk <http://www.dct.org.uk>
Elizabeth Finn Care provides practical and financial support to people from a wide range of backgrounds - people who have slipped into poverty due to, or made worse by, physical or mental illness, family breakdown, bereavement or redundancy and older people on inadequate pensions.
www.elizabethfinncare.org.uk <http://www.elizabethfinncare.org.uk>
A wholly owned subsidiary of Elizabeth Finn Care, Elizabeth Finn Homes Ltd, operates a group of 10 award winning care homes in England and 10 almshouse cottages near Birmingham
www.efhl.co.uk <http://www.efhl.co.uk>
The Alzheimer's Society has over 25,000 members and operates through a partnership between over 250 branches and support groups and the national organization in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1979 as the Alzheimer's Disease Society www.alzheimers.org.uk
For further information:
Mike Abbott
Press Officer
Elizabeth Finn Care
1 Derry Street
London W8 5HY
020-7396-6690
