The Scary Math of Dementia

Dementia is not going away anytime soon. These are the numbers of people living with various forms of cognitive decline:

• 7.2 million people have Alzheimer’s

• 1.4 million have Lewy body Dementia

• Roughly 500,000 to 1 million have Parkinson’s

• 2.7 have vascular or mixed dementia

Those numbers are growing. They estimate by somewhere between 2050 and 2060 there could be twice as many people with some form of cognitive decline.

You would think my industry (assisted living and nursing homes) is booming.

Not so much.

Over 770 nursing homes have closed since 2020. That year sound familiar? It was because Covid was really tough on the industry. Most of the deaths from Covid were in the elderly population. The customer base for care facilities took a big hit.

Many nursing homes could not find enough residents.

Since 2020 rising inflation also hit hard. Care facilities have seen their costs rise as well:

• Labor

• Food

• Insurance - many providers stopped insuring care facilities completely

• Utilities

• Taxes

• Real estate

• Loan interest rates

That meant a lot of us had to raise our monthly fees to our residents. The trouble is that many of our residents are on fixed incomes. They could not afford large fee increases.

Many caregivers also started seeking new lines of work since 2020. 24 US states are currently facing ‘emergency-level’ shortages of caregivers.

Caregivers typically are paid about the same as fast-food workers. A fast-food worker can start working and earning money as soon as they are hired. They can come to work with no experience and receive on-the-job-training. Their hours are usually pretty decent as well.

By contrast a caregiver often has to spend hundreds to low thousands on certifications and regulatory requirements prior to ever earning a dollar. In Arizona they require:

• A 40-hour caregiver training course

• CPR/First Aid training

• Police background check

• 8 hours of dementia training in addition to the 40 hour training

• Vaccinations

Then those caregivers have to work a very demanding, stressful job. Not to make light of fast-food workers or other lower-wage jobs, but caregiving is challenging. Changing diapers at 3am on a Sunday morning for someone who is cursing at you seems more stressful than making food for people.

Especially when a lot of the processes in fast food are automated.

One of the first questions one of my manager’s ask in interviews for new caregivers is “So what do you think of wiping old people’s butts?”. It does help us weed out the people who probably won’t make it.

Nursing homes and assisted living facilities are becoming more polarized in terms of who they can serve. As the numbers of facilities decrease and the prices go up, only the wealthiest and poorest (Medicaid pays for assisted living if you qualify) people can go to the them.

The vast majority in the middle will have to rely on friends and family for their care.

That’s why it’s so important to do everything you can to avoid cognitive decline. Lifestyle can make such a difference. It’s why my health coach and I started our Thrive at Your Home community. We want you never to have to worry about these scary projections.