€4.3m Pilot Project Into Dementia Patient Care Launched

A new €4.3 MILLION pilot project into the care and treatment of people with dementia has been launched in Kinsale, Co Cork, alongside similar scheme’s in south Tipperary, Stillorgan and Blackrock in Dublin, and Co Mayo.

The project hopes to divert thousands of people with the condition away from institutional care and allow them to continuing living in their communities.

Founding director of charity Genio, Madeleine Clarke, highlights that currently there are 40,000 people in Ireland diagnosed with dementia, of whom 14,000 are in residential and institutional care. However, it is estimated that by 2041 the numbers diagnosed with dementia in Ireland will be 147,000.

“The provision of services for people with dementia is a huge issue coming down the track for Ireland, so even if we thought putting people into institutional care was the correct way to go we couldn’t do it, it’s completely unsustainable.”

Ms Clarke said what the Kinsale Community Response to Dementia (K-Cord) project and the other three projects would share equally in €4.3 million funding, €2.3 million of which was coming from the private sector via Atlantic Philanthropies and some €2 million from the public sector through the Health Service Executive.

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