DEMENTIA touches the lives of more than two million Australians either directly or through a loved one in their care, Centacare’s Dr Ben Fox said.
He said 400,000 Australians live with dementia and that number was set to double in the next 20 to 30 years.
Dr Fox spoke to a group of more than 70 people, both people living with dementia and their carers as well as parish and community members, at St Dympna’s Aspley parish hall on Monday.
Dr Fox’s own connection with dementia began with his grandmother, who was diagnosed when he was in his late teens and died in his early twenties.
“Nothing can really prepare you for what it is truly like to work with people with dementia or experience a family member go through that cognitive decline,” he said.
He said his experience with his grandmother came at a formative time in his life and it challenged him, learning how to engage with someone going through cognitive impairments and supporting his own parents who were journeying with her.
Dr Fox eventually did his doctoral research at the University of Queensland working with 30 to 40 people living with dementia before he moved into the aged care sector, where he has worked for the last decade.
Now working with Centacare, Dr Fox was eager to share the latest research into dementia with the community for Dementia Action Week this week.
He said dementia was the second leading cause of death for all Australians and the leading cause of death for Australian women.
It matters for all Australians to understand dementia, he said.
Dementia is an umbrella term for many illnesses that cause a progressive decline in a person’s functioning, particularly memory, rationality, social skills and physical functioning.
Dr Fox said dementia research showed the disease was linked to the mass of the human brain.
The human brain naturally loses mass over the course of life, he said, but brain scans showed there was significantly more loss of mass in the brains of people with dementia.
The areas of the brain most affected by the loss of mass were the hippocampus, which is associated with memory, and the frontal lobe, which is associated with emotional regulation.
Dr Fox said there was exciting research being done at the University of Queensland to try to stimulate the brain in these areas with ultrasound technology, which could potentially stop the disease in its tracks.
There were also some things people could do to lower their risk like doing puzzles and intense physical activity, he said.
Dr Fox said there were many warning signs a person could watch out for – a key one being losing track of time and place.
He said a typical scenario for someone experiencing with dementia was they might be out to the local shops, “the shops they had shopped at forever”, and suddenly did not know where they were or how to get home.
Dr Fox said he was hopeful for the future of dementia research and encouraged people to learn more about the disease.
To find out more about dementia, head to https://centacare.com/support-for-people-with-dementia/
