Parliament supports Childers amendments on new EU Alzheimer's initiative

Posted by Bronwen Maher on November 30, 2010 at 11:47 AM

Labour MEP Nessa Childers welcomed today's vote in the Public Health Committee of the European Parliament on the proposed new EU Initiative on Alzheimer's, which supported her amendments.

She said: "This EU initiative is very timely, considering the crisis developing in the field of Alzheimer care in Ireland with the number of people awaiting services having increased by 33 per cent to 1,000 in the last year. I call on the government to resist cutbacks in this area and to support this initiative fully. The economic cost of dementia ranks higher than stroke, heart disease and cancer combined. Cutbacks now would be short-sighted.

“It is estimated that because of Ireland’s ageing population the number of people living with dementia will increase from 44,000 to more than 70,000 in the next 16 years.

"As one of the MEPs responsible for drawing up this report, one focus was on the specific needs of women. Twice as many women as men in Europe are affected by the illness, with the burden of care often falling on women who neglect their own health, quit jobs and risk poverty as a result of caring for an ill relative.

"The EU accepts that the overall approach to Alzheimer's which affects over 7.3 million citizens must be better co-ordinated across the Member States. I support also the notion that flexible work policies should be introduced across the Member States to address both the needs of people with Alzheimer's and dementia and to ensure that those with the responsibility for caring can get the time off required when they need it while retaining their job.

"I am delighted the Committee voted to support my amendments calling on employers to develop 'Mental Health at Work' policies as part of their health and safety at work responsibility, to identify new job opportunities as part of extended dementia care systems, to examine the use of living wills across Europe and for extra research into effects of diet and nutrition on mental well-being.

"The debate on the new Alzheimer's initiative should also consider how to ensure that a system can be developed where a carers pension entitlements would not be unduly affected by the requirement to take time out from employment in order to fulfill the valuable role of a carer. This matter should be considered fully in the context of the European Commission Green Paper on pensions.”

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