The full story...

Push to adapt dementia services for younger adults

Tom Nightingale reported this story on Wednesday, December 5, 2012 18:26:00

MARK COLVIN: No-one at any age wants to be diagnosed with dementia. But when you're diagnosed young, it's especially devastating. Sometimes it comes as someone is still raising children. There's also the chance of a relatively young move into a nursing home designed to care for much older people.

That's exactly what Alzheimer's Australia says is happening under the current service levels. They hope a website launched today will help people be more informed about managing the condition and having a better quality of life.

Tom Nightingale reports.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: Mandy Lovell lives in outer Melbourne and says she clearly remembers finding out her husband Garry would develop early onset dementia.

MANDY LOVELL: There were no words for that moment I don't think and it was a shock and all of that sort of stuff.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: Decades ago, Garry's mother had been through the same thing.

MANDY LOVELL: That was quite a rub because she was so much younger than everybody else in care and the care facilities were really having a hard time dealing with, you know, the majority of people in their 80s and 90s and this gorgeous and very active sports lady who was only 50 years old.

GARRY LOVELL: I was looking after her before that. It became dangerous because she'd leave the heaters on and gas was on in the house, and if she had have left dinner or something on the stove it would have blown up the house. So after that it was just, she couldn't be by herself.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: Garry Lovell was her carer, and made the difficult call to put her in a nursing home.

GARRY LOVELL: She was in probably six or seven different places because she didn't fit in.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: He's now cared for by his wife and he's not facing a similar situation to his mother.

GARRY LOVELL: Well not much has changed. There's one place in New South Wales that's just for younger people, but that's the only one in Australia. The other system, always, they play their music and it's just not right. If you're 50 or 45, you know, you're not going to sing along with the very old songs and stuff.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: Other parts of dementia care are also aimed at those who are older, so some younger adults are left out.

John Watkins is a former New South Wales deputy premier, and now heads the state's branch of Alzheimer's Australia.

JOHN WATKINS: These are people who often have small children, they're in the middle of their work life, often at the top of their earning capacity and that's taken away. They've got mortgages, they may be looking after their own parents that have dementia. And suddenly it happens to them, they then look for services that are appropriate and generally can't find them. They may have to go into a residential facility where it's simply not designed for them.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: What's the answer? What can be done about it?

JOHN WATKINS: Specific services for those people that are younger who develop the condition. We need, I think, an awareness campaign, we need awareness raised in the general community about the nature of dementia and we need specific accommodation types for people with younger onset dementia.

TOM NIGHTINGALE: Today, Alzheimer's Australia has launched a website it hopes will help people deal with early onset dementia, and manage it as well as they can.

Mandy Lovell says it's badly needed.

MANDY LOVELL: It's vital. One of the really important things about it is contacting, you know, having contact with other people who are on the same journey as you so you're not out there sort of on your own with things. It's great to be able to - you know, bounce off questions to other people you know: what did you do in this circumstance? You know, how did you feel about that when that happened? You know, where did you find that service?

TOM NIGHTINGALE: She says living with the condition can be frustrating but it can also be inspiring.

MANDY LOVELL: We sort of saw what happened to Garry's mum, he's acutely aware of that, he knows sort of what's ahead for him; and that's quite a big burden to bear. But what inspires me about him, I suppose is that he is out there living life, having a great time, doing all of the things that he's wanted to do.

MARK COLVIN: Mandy Lovell, whose husband has early onset dementia, ending Tom Nightingale's report.



  • Click an image to enlarge
  • A brain scan
From the Archives

From the 1945 archive:


» More
Follow us...
Follow us on Facebook
Other News Websites