Alzheimer’s Australia is calling on the federal government to implement a national awareness campaign calling on all Australians to have a health care plan set in place for when they can no longer manage it themselves.

WITH dementia rates set to soar, it is imperative more Australians plan for when they can no longer manage their health care, end-of-life care, or financial affairs, a new report says.

Only about 55 per cent of Australians have a will, and an even smaller proportion have recorded their wishes in legally binding directives about nursing, guardianship, or power of attorney arrangements.

The report, by Alzheimer’s Australia, calls on the federal government to implement a national awareness campaign about planning.

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It also wants general practitioners to take a bigger role in providing patients, especially those in the early stage of dementia, with information about the importance of ”putting things in order” while they have the capacity to express their wishes.

The organisation wants to make it a condition of access to nursing homes, and some in-home aged care services, that such arrangements have been made.

”This is not a topic that we, as a population, generally like to talk about,” the chief executive of Alzheimer’s Australia, John Watkins, said. ”And we know from our members that many don’t talk about it until it’s too late.”

The report reveals a looming dementia epidemic for NSW, with the number of people with the condition set to increase from 95,000 to 303,500 by 2050. A separate analysis shows the electorates expected to be most affected include Tweed, Port Macquarie, Myall Lakes, Bega, Wyong and Port Stephens, with projected increases of up to 400 per cent.

Recent interviews with carers, people with dementia and service providers showed they did not understand the value of planning, did not know where to access information, and did not receive support from GPs and health professionals to do so, the report says.

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Time to act as dementia crisis looms, says report

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