ABSTRACT
Mr. Graham is one of the participants of this study. For the medical and caring services his confused speech raises two questions: Can he be cured and if not how can we care for him? And, of course, Mr. Graham is not an isolated example; he does not have a rare illness. The Alzheimer's Disease Society (UK) estimated the prevalence of the disease as affecting five in 100 people between the ages of 70 and 80, and 20 in 100 among people over 80; 500,000 people in the UK suffer from moderate or severe dementia (Alzheimer's Disease Society, 1990). Hamilton (1994) reported a roughly comparable situation in the USA. She cited Evans et al. (1990) who suggested that somewhere in the region of 11.3% of the population of the USA older than 65 is affected by Alzheimer's disease and that this may rise to nearer 50% in the group of people older than 85. British Government Actuary figures in 1986 suggested that, by the year 2051, 15.5% of the population would be older than 85; as opposed to a projection of 8.7% for 1991 (Jefferys, 1988, p.5). This would imply that by the middle of the next century there will be twice as many people older than 80 suffering from one of the dementing illnesses. On these projections, unless a cure for dementia is found before then, the assumption must be that provision of care will become an even more urgent problem than it is now. The issue is assuming both greater
resource implications and social significance and the backdrop of research endeavor increases correspondingly.
