‘My husband has dementia, he’s lost the ability to communicate because of lockdown’

Marian Teague, who lives with her husband Jim, in the village of Mountfield, near Omagh, said: “Jim has done lots of talks about dementia and how it’s is not a death sentence, but now he has lost the ability to communicate. That’s down to lockdown as we’ve had no-one to connect with. Jim has definitely deteriorated.”

Before lockdown began Marian, who works part-time, had carers coming in for 30 minutes twice a week and on Wednesdays, Jim attended a day centre. However, once lockdown began, the pressure on her increased dramatically.

She added: “At the beginning of lockdown it was just me caring for Jim. I was working from home, so instead of carers popping in, they would only tend to stay 10 minutes to make him a cup of tea. That meant I cared for him myself.

“The situation has impacted both my mental and physical health. I’m not getting to sleep until 2am and I’m getting up at 7am.”

An Alzheimer’s Society report has revealed ‘exhausted’ family and friends in Northern Ireland spent 2.3 million extra hours caring for loved ones with dementia since lockdown. The shocking figure has been blamed on the double whammy of lockdown making dementia symptoms worse, and the chronically underfunded social care system leaving them nowhere else to turn.

Bernadine McCrory, Alzheimer’s Society NI,said carers are “burnt out and barely sleeping”.

“The Government must never abandon families with dementia again. Lessons must be learnt to prevent any further tragedy this winter. I’m angry that families and friends out in the community have been left to fend for themselves as the people they love with dementia have declined in front of their eyes. They have been fighting against the odds to give decent care to their loved ones.”

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