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Illness, dependency and how this affects families

Illness, dependency and how this affects families

Death does not come with age, it comes with forgetting. Gabriel García Márquez

Who am I Mum?

You’re one of mine.

And what’s my name?

I can’t remember.

Her tenuous light goes out again and she returns to her world of confusion. (Pedro Serrano Martínez)

In the 1970s Alzheimer's did not appear in medicine books. Even neurology specialists knew nothing of the illness. This pathology was described for the first time by the German doctor Alois Alzheimer in 1906. He diagnosed a 51 year old woman with it who was admitted into hospital due to clinical symptoms characterised by fast loss of memory, hallucinations, time-space disorientation and serious language disturbance. After her death, doctor Alzheimer studied her brain where he found a reduced number of neurones in the cerebral cortex.

So, what at the time was thought to be a rare disease was demonstrated over time to be the most frequent cause of dementia. Although it is not unusual to see symptoms in people aged 50, 40 or even younger, mental illnesses undoubtedly affect old people more than others.

According to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), in January 2008 there were 5,786,088 people over 70 years old in Spain. It is estimated that over the next decade there will be a 19.2% increase in the over-64 age group which means adding almost a million and a half old people to the population.

This considerable increase in life expectancy in self-named “developed countries” is the direct consequence of economic growth. There is an increasing number of old people, consequently multiplying the appearance of diseases related to old age, such as dementia. In parallel, more and more people will become “carers” of human beings affected by illnesses linked to longevity.

This increase in patients represents an added problem for a society where the traditional family model is breaking down. Formerly, the man provided money for the family nucleus, whilst the woman was in charge of the home and caring for the children and grandparents. Factors such as women going out to work, an increase in the number of divorces and reconstituted families or the proliferation of single parent families, makes it hard in many cases for the patient to received personalised care within their own family.

Even in the case where it is feasible to care for the dependent person within the family, this implies a series of negative consequences, both personally and socially, for the “carers”. So, in addition to the financial cost of caring for these diseases and the people suffering them, we also have the “carer syndrome”. The carer family members are absorbed by the patient’s disease. They have to make difficult decisions everyday regarding the health and well-being of their loved ones and they usually have negative feelings such as frustration, sadness, guilt, anger or a sense of loss for their relation’s deteriorating health.

If we take these factors into account, the human drama, the pain and the personal and social wear caused by these diseases, both to patients and “carers” and we add the economic considerations, we realise that we are tackling an enormous social problem.

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