THERE NEEDS to be significantly more investment by the State in community supports for people with Alzheimer's disease and their carers, a conference in Dublin heard yesterday.
Prof Eamon O'Shea, director of the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology at the National University of Ireland Galway, said the disease was costing about €400 million a year. "That mainly falls on carers but it also falls on the health and social care system itself," he said.
The investment, he said, was required in home care supports, respite care and in special care units. He was speaking at a conference organised by Wyeth, which is among a number of pharmaceutical firms, trying to develop new therapies to treat Alzheimer's.
Dr Menelas Pangalos from Wyeth said the company has a number of treatments in clinical development. However, there is no knowing yet if these treatments will successfully make it through clinical trials and end up on the market. "They are on the horizon, how long the horizon is is difficult to predict," he said.
Opening the conference Minister for Health Mary Harney said 11 per cent of the population was aged over 65 years compared to 27 per cent in Germany and 18 per cent in the UK. "So while we have a relatively young population it's important that we put supports in place because the population is ageing quite rapidly and we will almost double the number of people over 65 over the next 20 years," she said.