The Impact of Dementia on The Individual, family & Society.
Next ⇒ ⇒ Impact PwD on Family Members
India is a diverse country with geographical and socio-cultural differences. We have a rapidly aging population which currently exceeds 100 million. This number will steadily increase in the coming decades. The estimated number of PwD (People with Dementia) in India is an important indicator of the impact of the disease. However numbers do not convey the effect on the quality of the individual experience, or the wider consequences on the society. Hence the impact of dementia needs to be understood from three inter-related levels:
- The individual: The PwD experiences ill health, disability, impaired quality of life and reduced life expectancy.
- The family: Dementia in one of the family members has an overall impact on the entire family. At this juncture, the family and kinship form the cornerstone of care and support of the PwD in India.
- The society: The cost of providing care and support to the PwD is met by the society, either directly through government expenditure, or in other ways. The cost of lost productivity needs to be to be accounted for. Other social impacts, like burden may be harder to quantify, but still have to be borne or endured.
