By Dr Jamie Wilson is a U.K. based dementia specialist and founder/CEO of hometouch
We are facing a global care crisis, fuelled by ageing populations, funding deficits for healthcare across many developed markets and what is seen as a rapidly growing ‘dementia epidemic’.
Our partner, UK-based, Alzheimer’s Society estimates 46.8 million people globally are currently living with dementia, and that the numbers affected will double every 20 years, rising to 115.4 million in 2050. To put this into context, the worldwide costs of dementia will soon match the GDP of the US (Currently c $20tn).
It is wholly unsustainable and medical solutions are few and far between. Drug companies have spent hundreds of billions of dollars on failed compounds to treat the condition. More than 400 drug trials have failed since 2000 with a 99.6% failure rate. In fact, only one new drug, memantine, has been approved during this time.
Here in the UK, the government is paying lip service to tackling the issues without a great deal of action. All the while, carers and their patients are facing increasingly difficult working and living conditions.
Our care systems are being underfunded but more fundamentally that that, they are flawed by design. Again, here in the UK, a ‘time and task’ model of care provision is sparking a recruitment and retention crisis, which fails to take advantage of technology to improve patient outcomes and cut costs in parallel.
We need to fundamentally reform how care is provided, with a new approach that takes a preventative role, using technological advancements to make more of the funding that does exist. This will require a shift in mindset and that will not happen overnight, but it is crucial if we’re going to improve care today and halt the progress of this crisis which is already on our doorstep.
Brain health and the opportunity for prevention
In the midst of many challenges facing our social care system today, the cognitive health of the elderly is a primary concern, not only people working in care, but for our policy makers too.
There are 850,000 people in the UK that are diagnosed with dementia, and 30% of people currently know someone suffering with the condition. Any disease brings emotional challenges that far outweigh financial burdens but in the case of dementia, paying for care is a serious concern, which is estimated to cost £100k on average.
What we fail to acknowledge is that there are ways to delay the early onset of dementia and if we act now, we could radically reduce its burden on our society. According to research in the Lancet, 40% of dementia is preventable with structured lifestyle interventions.
Changes to diet, physical activity and mental stimulation could halt the progress of cognitive decline in its tracks, and these interventions can be delivered through home care itself.
However, at the moment, many carers are not trained to identify, or manage the symptoms of dementia and the current system means that too many carers are being treated more like contract cleaners than the care professionals they are.
In short, we are missing an opportunity to take a preventative approach, one which is affordable, delivered by care workers but one which will fundamentally be supported by technology.
Making better use of technology
From monitoring tools for those living alone, to care robots that can replace some functions of a human carer and help combat loneliness, and assistive technology that can support in areas from maintaining a regular sleep pattern to automating elements of cleaning, gardening and cooking, there is huge scope for technology to make care more efficient and support people to live an independent lifestyle for longer.
Some of these advancements will be controversial, many will not become common place for many years, but even today technology offers us the perfect entry point for a new, preventative approach to cognitive decline.
Through platforms like hometouch, which are digitising the logistics, compliance and quality assurance of home care, we’re already collecting vast amounts of data on the downstream effects on dementia. Combined with the powerful algorithms we’re developing which match stratified patient groups with the hundreds of lifestyle interventions for cognitive impairment, empirically validated each year in clinical studies, we are reimagining the way home care is being delivered.
By empowering carers with digital tools we are able to track activity, behaviour and safety, meaning the impact of interventions on clients can be monitored and understood over time. This can provide us with crucial insights, gleaned from natural language processing to predict problems before they arise, and deliver information to fuel a more proactive and preventative model.
These technological advancements release carers from administrative and cumbersome tasks that currently fill their time, allowing them to focus on areas where the human touch can make the most difference but it can also help them progress and develop professionally.
My company, hometouch, is developing new tools and learning materials to enable carers to help patients maintain brain health. We are the first and only home care platform to focus on prevention in this way and we believe this should available for all carers treating patients with dementia and would be a means to help reduce the burden on the healthcare system.
In reality, technology can and should be good for patients and carers alike: providing an always-on support system for those who need it, while uplifting the role of caregivers to the point where the job regains the meaning and purpose that should be its core attraction in the first place.
Through re-organising how care is organised and delivered, focusing on stronger relationships, preventative care and patient empowerment, all allied to technological enhancements, we can create an elderly care system that performs better, costs less and achieves much more.