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dementia versus autism

longman

Dementia is very much a frontline issue. It costs £26 billion a year - autism has a cost but probably not on the same scale, and the response for autism is to constrain resources. Dementia is in focus because community action, such as Dementia Friends, can reduce some of the impact.

I'm not trying to detract from the importance of dementia, but although the causes are different, the impacts have similarities - social communication difficulties, including loss of connectivity with family and friends; anxiety and depression, clumsier and slower movement.

It seems strange that similar lifestyle impacts can get so much interest for one condition, while another condition with similar lifestyle implications has to struggle for funds and research.

In some ways the experiences of people living with autism could inform understanding of living with and better coping with the problems of dementia. Dementia is mostly about later life. Autism is a lifelong condition, and means people having to cope and adapt across a lifetime. That experience and insight must be valuable.

However no attempt has been made to generate Autism Friends. It is only a localised phenomena to have buddying systems in school, colleges, universities and the workplace. Why cannot the Dementia Friends concept be extended to benefit people with autism?

Also autism has not experienced the level of public focus now being given to dementia. So there ought to be many ways autism can benefit from new strategies for dementia, where there are comparable lifestyle issues.

But to benefit from any spin-off and interchange of ideas NAS and other organisations need to flag up the similarities and the cross-benefits.

How do others feel about this?

Parents
  • Former Member
    Former Member

    As Marjorie says, dementia and autism are very very different in their impact on the sufferers and those around them. I watched my father die of dementia. The burden placed on my mother and other carers was unbearable and enormous. He became aggressive, incontinent, incapable, angry, confused etc etc. He died in a EMI hospital which was a modern version of Bedlam.

    I  now believe that he had ASD all his life, that was never recognised, so he spent a life on anti-depressants and at odds with the world. I suspect that his medication may have contributed to the dementia.

    Life on the spectrum in old age without dementia is very different and I suspect that many people in this situation would reject any attempt at befriending as many people will have spent most of their life isolated and alienated from society. I wouldn't fancy trying to befriend such a person - you'll struggle to train them to be more civil if they have spent their life anti-socially. Other sufferers will have been desperately lonely all their life but, if they don't emerge from that before old age then they may be unable to make the move at that point.

    This brings us back to the point of whether we have to fit into society or whether society has to bend to suit us. Ultimately, I think it is in our own interests to make the first move and to build networks of friends before we become too old.

Reply
  • Former Member
    Former Member

    As Marjorie says, dementia and autism are very very different in their impact on the sufferers and those around them. I watched my father die of dementia. The burden placed on my mother and other carers was unbearable and enormous. He became aggressive, incontinent, incapable, angry, confused etc etc. He died in a EMI hospital which was a modern version of Bedlam.

    I  now believe that he had ASD all his life, that was never recognised, so he spent a life on anti-depressants and at odds with the world. I suspect that his medication may have contributed to the dementia.

    Life on the spectrum in old age without dementia is very different and I suspect that many people in this situation would reject any attempt at befriending as many people will have spent most of their life isolated and alienated from society. I wouldn't fancy trying to befriend such a person - you'll struggle to train them to be more civil if they have spent their life anti-socially. Other sufferers will have been desperately lonely all their life but, if they don't emerge from that before old age then they may be unable to make the move at that point.

    This brings us back to the point of whether we have to fit into society or whether society has to bend to suit us. Ultimately, I think it is in our own interests to make the first move and to build networks of friends before we become too old.

Children
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