Trinity Research into the Health of Dementia Caregivers

Trinity College Dublin (TCD) have announced a three year study undertaken by TCD's Institute for Neuroscience. The research are looking to recruit 300 participant for its De-Stress project which will study the stress levels and cognitive functions of people providing care to dementia sufferers. The study is conducted in association with TCD's NEIL programme. The researchers are looking for people aged over 50 who are looking after their spouse or partner with dementia at home. The study is funded by the Alzheimer Society of Ireland and the Health Research Board under the Medical Research Charities Group funding scheme.

Professor Brian Lawlor, Clinical Director of NEIL and Conolly Norman Professor of Old Age Psychiatry at Trinity, commented: “You can’t treat the person with dementia without taking the caregiver into consideration. By understanding the effects of caregiving on cognitive functioning, we can think about how to develop novel interventions that will benefit the caregiver but also will have a knock on benefit for the person with dementia. Ultimately, we want to improve the quality of life of the person with dementia and their caregiver, allowing the person with dementia to be able to stay at home with a good quality of life for as long as possible.”

There are currently 41,740 people in Ireland living with dementia by 2041 there will be over 140,000. 60-70% of dementia suffers live at home. There are 50,000 family care givers. The cost of dementia care is over €1.69 billion per annum with 43% attributable to informal family care. The average cost per person is €40,500.