Alzheimer disease and dementia care is available for both carers and victims on the north shore

Dementia is not easy to forget once you know it’s the second leading cause of death in Australia with numbers set to double in Hornsby and Ku-ring-gai by 2056.

Barry Freeman of West Pennant Hills with his wife Joanie who has early on set dementia.

Dementia is not easy to forget once you know it’s the second leading cause of death in Australia and the number of people suffering from it will more than double in Hornsby and Ku-ring-gai by 2056.

Currently 3312 people live with dementia in the Hornsby and Ku-ring-gai state electorates, but that number is expected to increase to 7160 in 40 years.

In 2009 Joan Freeman, a local radiographer with three children, was diagnosed with younger onset dementia aged just 61.

She had moved to West Pennant Hills with her husband Barry, a year after they were married about 44 years ago.

Barry, 69, gave up work immediately to be her full time carer. Four years later she went into residential care after his health began to slide.

Barry Freeman of West Pennant Hills with his wife Joan who has early on set dementia.

“If you’re dealing with someone with alzheimers you do need 24/7 care, it is a very tough gig,” Mr Freeman said. “Once she was diagnosed, people come out of the woodwork saying something was not right with her. She went quite quiet over a period of time.”

About a year after she was diagnosed she stopped speaking and hasn’t spoken since, he said.

“She was a very vibrant individual,” Mr Freeman said. “She was social, had lots of friends ... when she came home from being diagnosed she said a couple of times in the first month ‘I can’t believe I’ve got this.”

Alzheimer’s Australia NSW CEO John Watkins said the number of people living with the disease rose to more than 400,000 in 2016.

“Dementia can be a very isolating, confusing, confronting and difficult disease to live with,” he said. “But you are not alone. There is a whole range of help available.”

Ku-ring-gai state Liberal MP Alister Henskens said local services can improve the lives of people living with dementia.

“The focus for the programs and services is on early intervention, which encourages timely diagnosis and health monitoring and review, improving the support received by people with dementia,” Mr Henskens said. “Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospital has a Dementia and Delirium Unit and also access to a Dementia and Delirium Clinical Nurse Consultant through Northern Sydney Home Nursing Service.

(L-R) Federal Minister for Urban Infrastructure Paul Fletcher and Ku-ring-gai state liberal MP Alister Henskens, at the official opening in February 2017, of the first multistorey, dementia specific designed aged care home in Wahroonga. Picture: Troy Snook

There are also neuropsychiatry, geriatrics and memory clinics at the hospital, he said.

“Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospital’s Associate Professor, Susan Kurrle, is the lead investigator of Australia’s first centre for cognitive decline research, whose program includes the development of the first clinical practice guidelines for dementia in Australia, advance care planning for dementia patients and embedding the care of the Confused Hospitalised Older Person program across hospitals in NSW and beyond.”

There are also carer support meetings, held at community centres and Allied Health provides a range of services in hospital clinics or in the home for people with dementia, he said.

Call the National Dementia Helpline on 1800 100 500 for more details or go to:

fightdementia.org.au

By the Numbers:

■ 413,000 people have dementia in Australia and the number of people suffering Dementia, including Alzheimer disease, is projected to reach more than 1.1 million in 40 years.

■ Dementia was the second leading cause of death in 2015, killing 12,625.

■ In 2017, dementia is estimated to cost Australia $14.67 billion.