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Fear and Stigma

Dementia, with Alzheimer鈥檚 as its most common form, is the disease people fear the most. We explore how fear is stigmatising those who have it, but also how to overcome it.

Few of us will escape the impact of Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease. The grim pay-back from being healthy, wealthy or lucky enough to live into our late 80s and beyond is dementia. One in three - maybe even one in two of us - will then get dementia and forget almost everything we ever knew. And the lucky others? They will probably end up caring for someone with Alzheimer鈥檚, the most common form of dementia.

But it is far more than just a personal family tragedy. It is a major economic challenge to governments and health-care providers around the world, and will force some fundamental rethinking on how we care for sufferers. The costs are already immense. Dementia is now a trillion-dollar disease, and with the numbers of patients doubling every 20 years, the burden will fall unevenly on developing countries where the growth rate is fastest.

In this first episode of the series, we explore how fear in some parts of the world is stigmatising those who have it, and denying help to those who need it. But also how to overcome the fear.

Presenter: Andrew Bomford.
Series Producer: Estelle Doyle

(Photo: Close up of woman's eye. Credit: Getty Images)

Available now

27 minutes

Last on

Sun 20 Jan 2019 18:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Tue 15 Jan 2019 13:32GMT
  • Tue 15 Jan 2019 23:06GMT
  • Wed 16 Jan 2019 02:32GMT
  • Sat 19 Jan 2019 09:32GMT
  • Sun 20 Jan 2019 18:06GMT