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The Effects Of Dementia On Children With Dementia And Older Carers

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Background
The world population is aging and as this occurs, the prevalence of dementia will increase significantly (World Health Organization, 2012). Dementia is an illness in which a person’s memory and thinking decline, behavior changes increase, and the ability to perform everyday activities decline. Dementia mainly affects older people with 7.7 million new cases arising every year worldwide (World Health Organization, 2012). Currently, there are approximately 47.5 million people in the world with dementia and this is set to increase with the national ageing trends. According to World Health Organization (WHO) (2012), one of the most common types of dementia is Alzheimer 's disease which accounts for 60-70% of dementia cases. Increased disability and dependency is one of the major outcomes of dementia; it greatly impacts carers, families, and society physically, psychologically, socially, and economically. (World Health Organization, 2012).
There is a correlation of increased demand for care of people with dementia and older carers as the overall population lives longer (Dury, 2014). Greater reliance on families to give care results in many older carers giving care to older family members (Dury, 2014). Studies have shown a third of all carers account for this age group and one in five carers is the spouse of the person being cared for (Lafferty et al., 2014). The combination of being an older carer and having physical or mental health issues can increase the burden of

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