Early Diagnosis

Wednesday, 15 January 2014 at 16:51

Locals encouraged to get checked early for dementia

Early diagnosis is the key when it comes to dementia.

It's Alzheimer Awareness Month and according to the organization, up to 50 percent of Canadians with dementia wait too long for diagnosis.

Alzheimer Society Oxford Behavioural Support Worker Beth Haas says early diagnosis helps for a number of reasons.

"People who are diagnosed early on often can gain access to medications that are most effective in the early stages so if they are diagnosed maybe three or four years after the beginning stages of dementia they are no longer effective, these medications."

Haas says with early diagnosis, patients can share the news with family and friends and prepare what is to come down the road by completely wills and powers of attorney.

She says early detection allows the individual the ability to gain information, support and education and provides more years of living active and fulfilling lives.

"We know that people who have that knowledge can learn adaptive techniques to carry on living as effectively and as capably as possible and studies have shown that people who reach out and educate themselves actually stay in the community up to 18 months longer, they don't have to go into long term care for example."

Haas says more than 1950 people in Oxford are currently living with Alzheimer's disease and other dementia's.

"We see maybe 600 in total and that's including family members and friends that we might be offering support to so we know there's a lot of people out there struggling with this on their own or a lot of people who assume this is just a normal part of aging. We now know that any kind of memory loss is not a normal part of aging."

Haas says someone who is 85 and can't recall your name is not necessarily dementia since at 85 you have a lot of items stored in your brain, but if they can't remember how they are related to you, or if you lived next door to them for 15 years, those many be signs.

Currently in Ontario, $5 billion is spent yearly on dementia related health issues with that number expected to increase by more than $770 million by 2020.

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