A grow­ing challenge

An esti­mat­ed 21,000 peo­ple are liv­ing with demen­tia in Upper Aus­tria. This stroke of fate is asso­ci­at­ed with great stress for those affect­ed and their rel­a­tives. There is still no cure in sight for the dis­ease, which becomes more com­mon with increas­ing age. Due to the demo­graph­ic devel­op­ment, the sit­u­a­tion will there­fore wors­en sig­nif­i­cant­ly in the com­ing years: By 2045, an increase to 48,000 patients is expect­ed in Upper Aus­tria, a chal­lenge for care and support.

In order to improve the sit­u­a­tion for peo­ple with demen­tia and their rel­a­tives in the future, ACADEMIA SUPERIOR invit­ed to an Stake­hold­er Forum at the Johannes Kepler Uni­ver­si­ty Linz.

“We have to face demen­tia in all sec­tors of soci­ety. If we show that you can do some­thing against it, we can take away the fear of the dis­ease a lit­tle bit”, explained chair­woman LH-Stv. Mag. Chris­tine Haber­lan­der at the begin­ning of the talks. Sozial­lan­desrätin Bir­git Ger­stor­fer shared this opin­ion: „We have to reduce the stig­ma that still clings to demen­tia and, as a soci­ety, ensure that peo­ple with demen­tia are not social­ly isolated”.