‘Without stat in Malta, pla be difficult’

Kevin Schembri Orland PN Spokesman for Mental Health, Dementia, Community Care, Diabetes and Animal Welfare Mario Galea has told The Malta Independent on Sunday that, without proper statistics on dementia in Malta, planning ahead will prove extremely difficult for the government.

Galea was contacted after a Parliamentary Question he had posed received a rather worrying response from Social Solidarity Minister Michael Falzon. Galea had asked for the total expenditure of the country on dementia and Alzheimer’s, to which the Minister said that no local studies on the cost of dementia for Malta has ever taken place, and he quoted one foreign study that was undertaken in 2010.

In a second Parliamentary Question, he requested information regarding the number of people with dementia or Alzheimer’s in Malta, and for calculations as to by how much this would increase over the coming 10 years. The minister quoted from a 2012 University of Malta study, which recorded that, in 2010, there were 5,198 people with dementia and/or Alzheimer’s and that this number was expected to rise to 9,883 by 2030.

Speaking to this newsroom, Galea said that he was rather surprised to read the answer to his recent Parliamentary Questions, that in Malta we do not have recent scientific statistics regarding the incidence and recurrent cost of dementia in Malta.

“In fact, the figures quoted by the Minister in Parliament regarding the incidence of dementia in Malta, are from a study carried out by the University of Malta in 2012 which revealed that the incidence of dementia in Malta by the year 2030 will be round about 10,000. This study probably coincides with the dementia strategy written during the time when I was Parliamentary Secretary responsible for the Care of the Elderly,” Galea said.

“After the change in Government in 2013, the Labour Administration decided to re-write their own Dementia Strategy (by the same people who wrote our strategy). The first one was commissioned by Franco Mercieca, then Parliamentary Secretary for the Elderly. A year or so after his surprise resignation from cabinet he was succeeded by Justyne Caruana who also instructed that the dementia strategy should be re-written (by the same group of experts).

“I find it mind-boggling that, since 2012, no new studies have been commissioned to update the incidence of dementia in Malta and Gozo. Regarding the only study related to cost that was quoted in Parliament by the Minister, that was one conducted by the University of Karoloniska in Sweden back in 2010, which estimated that the cost of caring for dementia sufferers in Malta at that time was €63.1 million annually, if they are cared for by informal carers (family members), rising to €92.2 million annually if they are in the care of the state. I am sure that, were a study to be carried out now, the cost of dementia care in Malta will be astronomic.”

Galea believes it is of paramount importance that a contemporary study be carried out by the University of Malta or the National Statistics Office, in collaboration with the Commissioner for the Elderly and Mental Health, to establish the real incidence of dementia, projections and a much more accurate cost of dementia in Malta. “Without this data, planning for dementia will be difficult. Government has to plan for resources – beds, professional staff and budgeting – based on real, factual, up-to-date statistics.

“It has to be said that dementia has a direct correlation with longevity – the more people live the more the incidence of dementia. Fortunately in Malta we are amongst the leaders in longevity in the European Union but this success has a price attached to it – a higher incidence of dementia which will continue to decrease. In a small country like Malta, where families are getting smaller, the number of informal carers (family members) looking after elderly relatives with dementia is falling