Dementia support services should be restored to pre-COVID levels to prevent a possible rise in costly hospital admissions, a new study suggests.
The findings are published as part of a national survey led by the University of Liverpool which looked at the effect of COVID-19 on people living with dementia.
The UK-wide online and telephone survey was conducted with older adults, people with dementi, and carers between April and May 2020. Five hundred and sixty-nine participants completed the survey (61 people with dementia, 285 unpaid carers and 223 older adults).
Paired samples t-tests and X2-tests showed that the mean hour of weekly social support service usage and the number of people having accessed various services was significantly reduced post-COVID-19.
Multiple regression analyses showed that higher variations in social support service hours significantly predicted increased levels of anxiety in people with dementia and older adults, and lower levels of mental well-being in unpaid carers and older adults.
Presenting the findings in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, the authors say: “Social support services need to be enabled to continue providing support in adapted formats, especially in light of continued public health restrictions for the foreseeable future.”
Dr Kathryn Lord, Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Health Studies at the University of Bradford and a co-author of the article, said: “We need to consider safe ways to try and bring back the support that has been closed. Given the negative impact of the closures, this means providing necessary PPE for staff and people living with dementia. We would like to ensure that there is support available for family carers who are often picking up a lot more caring responsibilities.”
Across the UK, over 850,000 people live with dementia. Support offered by family carers is estimated to save the health care services over £13 billion a year in the UK.
