'A big strain on the system': Spike in dementia diagnoses expected by 2030

Dr. Roger Butler,a family doctor in St. John's specializing ingeriatrics, says the projections for the province will prove challenging, especially with regard to the care setting.

"I'm scared at the numbers because they're overwhelming," said Butler.

"We'll almost effectively have to double the number of nursing home beds we currently have. Sothat model obviously can't be sustainable."

Butler says support systems for caregiver families like the Leonards need to be enhanced if more people are to take care of their family members within the next decade.

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The provincial home dementia care program, developed by Butler in 2014, looks at ways of doing that.

"We got to change fundamentally our way of doing business. The way we're doing business now is default programs to long-term care," said Butler.

"The default program has to be to age in place."

The program, which is now in its third year, has supported about 350 families and provided palliative care to 64 people to date.

"They aged in place and they died in their homes and they died with their families around them. And I think that's a wonderful gift," said Butler.

In a statement to CBC News, the Department of Health and Community Services said it has recently expanded Butler's program from the Eastern Health region to the Central Health region and is evaluating further expansions.

According to the department, the federal government is supporting home and community care in the province with over $43 million over five years.

Roseanne Leonard agrees that caregivers need more support.

As her mother's illness progressed, she said, her father's overall well-being was also affected.

"He'd be waking up overnight,wondering if she was still OK," said Leonard."You could tell that steady worry on him was starting to wear him down."

To give Blair some respite time, the family hired a home-care worker.

Overall, says Leonard, better training and wages are needed so home-care workers can adequately support the growing number of caregivers.

"It's not a babysitting role," said Leonard.

"We need to make sure that they are doing the job that a caregiver would be doing."

Butler agrees and adds that the estimated 20,000 home support workers in the province are largely untrained.

"They need to know how to deal with the behaviours that you see," said Butler, including thepersonality and mood changes associated with dementia.

"Untrained workers actually make the behaviours worse. So that can be a problem for a family."

The Alzheimer Society's dementia passport program online education for health care professionals is addressing this gap in education.

The project has provided training to more than 2,000 people since its launch in 2020.

"Obviously, the community is feeling the need because that's a huge uptake in a very short period of time," said Lucas.

Lucas adds that the local Alzheimer Society is also working on introducing dementia-friendly communities and businesses in the near future. Staff would be trained on how to communicate with people with dementia and the architecture would be adapted to their needs to prevent falls or confusion, for example.

"It's helpful to the care partner to have that inclusivity when they go out to places that if a behaviour happens, that's OK," said Lucas.

Leonard agrees that training and awareness in society are getting better but says more still needs to be done.

"The increasing number of families that are going to have to manage Alzheimer's is going to put a big strain on the system," said Leonard.

"We need more guidance and support to keep our loved ones at home in a safe environment, to allow employers the flexibility to support those caregivers."

"It's really a very inclusive, collaborative effort to make sure that we can care for our loved ones in places where they're best cared for."

If you need support because you or a loved one has received a dementia diagnosis, you can callthe Alzheimer Society N.L. toll-free at877-776-0608.

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