Costs of Caring for Dementia Patients Will Continue to Rise in Geogria

April 5th, 2013

A new study from the Rand Corporation says dementia is now the most expensive health problem in the nation, surpassing heart disease and cancer.An audio version of this story

The Alzheimer’s Association says, in 2010, there were 120,000 Georgians with Alzheimer’s disease, and that number is expected to grow to 160,000 by 2025.

Leslie Anderson, President of the Alzheimer’s Association Georgia chapter, says 84% of Georgians in nursing homes have some kind of dementia. The average cost of nursing home care in Georgia is about $51,000 a year.

“Unlike, say, someone who has heart disease, they don’t necessarily have to have 24-hour a day, 7-day a week care,” said Anderson. “A person with Alzheimer’s disease, who is in the mid-stages and certainly the late stages, cannot be alone.”

But not every dementia patient is in a nursing home. Anderson says there are indirect costs that cannot be quantified because so many family members take care of their loved ones who suffer from dementia. And there are also costs to the caregivers’ employers.

For example, said Anderson, “They might be late. They might have to take unpaid leaves of absence. So there’s a cost to the workplace as well as the family, and just the stress that’s placed on the caregiver is tremendous. And we find that caregivers are at a much higher risk for having health issues as well because that’s placed on them.”

The Atlanta Regional Commission reports that the 65 and older age segment is the fastest-growing in the metro area, meaning the costs of dementia here are all but guaranteed to continue to rise.