3 in 4 with dementia feel lonely, rejected: Survey

According to an extensive survey by SMU in collaboration with the Alzheimer’s Disease Association, 3 in 4 patients felt lonely and rejected and about 56% of respondents felt people treated those with dementia as less competent.  Nearly 30% of caregivers felt embarrassed while caring for their loved ones with dementia in public. Created by and code-named Remember.For.Me. by Rosie Ching, Senior Lecturer of Statistics at SMU School of Economics, the survey is a first-of-its-kind and Singapore-wide study that draws a picture of Singapore’s attitudes and awareness towards Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Ms Ching and her 99 statistics students covered more than 5,600 people in 5 weeks from January and carried out statistical analysis of the dementia landscape in Singapore. Ms Ching added, “Those with dementia have the second highest level of stigma against themselves, which must say a lot about how they feel living in a society like ours.”  She also noted the need to discuss the issue as it is becoming a “national threat to society’s well-being”.