Senior Care Organization Calls For Relationship-Based Care For Alzheimer’s Patients At G7 Global Dementia Legacy Event

Home Instead Senior Care (Home Instead SC) recently joined healthcare leaders from G7 governments for a general discussion regarding the progress made in community-based patient care initiatives and education as part of the Global Action against Dementia Legacy program. Home Instead’s president Jeff Huber and Duskin Company Home Instead Division Manager Gou Fukushima were the featured speakers who shared their experience and techniques for managing care for those who live with Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Global leaders met to discuss the continuously growing impact of Alzheimer’s disease on the aging population. It is estimated that by 2020 there will be about 1 billion people over the age of 60 worldwide. Currently, there are 36 million people with Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia. The enormous growth of the senior population is requiring new models of care address these unmet needs. Hence, this shift in focus is transforming markets, communities, and workplaces since it is creating novel opportunities for the economy to grow and for healthcare models to evolve.

The senior demographic of Japan represents about 25 percent of the total patient population, and it is expected to reach 40 percent by the year of 2050. Huber and Fukushima spoke about new care approaches and prevention models to keep up with this transformation of the Japanese society (and of the whole world).

“As longevity increases and birth rates decline, the traditional support model for seniors and their families becomes unsustainable (…) With this population shift and rise in Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, we must increase the world’s capacity to care. Home care helps people with Alzheimer’s disease and offers great support to those who care for them,” said Huber.

Fukushima presented the benefits of relationship-based care in Japan. In 2000, the Duskin Company coupled with the Home Instead SC franchise network. They now operate in more than one hundred franchises in Japan.

Fukushima explained the benefits of this union: “Under the Integrated Community Care System, our company, as a social resource, contributes to society by providing quality, relationship based care to seniors (…) Our services help seniors remain in their homes, safely and comfortably for as long as possible.”

Home Instead SC was founded in 1994 by Lori and Paul Hogan in Omaha. It is the largest provider of non-medical in-home care services for seniors in the world. It includes more than 1,000 franchises and more than 65,000 CAREGivers, providing care throughout the United States and in 16 more countries.