ABSTRACT
Dementia imposes a terrible burden on society. The social burden is greatly influenced by demography since dementia is predominantly a condition of very old people. Dementia bears a stigma like other mental illnesses. Before effective pharmacological measures for mental illness were developed, different models for understanding mental illness and different modes of treatment prevailed. Positive management of dementia consists of first making a diagnosis and excluding rare, potentially treatable causes of dementia such as thyroid deficiency. The ‘ideal’ scenario would be to develop the capacity to identify people at risk of dementia and to reduce that risk by acceptable and inexpensive public health or specific treatment measures. Local communities need to be helped to develop a better understanding of dementia and the issues that surround it so that families and people with dementia are treated as people and not marginalised.
