According to Alzheimer’s Research, the UK’s leading dementia research charity, the number of people with dementia is projected to increase rapidly in the next few decades, mainly due to increases in life expectancy – many of us living longer but with associated health issues.
It is estimated that one million people in the UK will have dementia by 2025, and this will increase to two million by 2050.
These are certainly worrying statistics and it does appear that we may be heading towards a crisis. The figures quoted are scarily large and brings with it a host of concerns and issues, caused by the gap between the rising number of us facing incapacity (due to age and conditions like Alzheimer’s and dementia), compared with too few people taking action to plan ahead for loss of capacity by making a Lasting Power of Attorney.
Health is a lottery, none of us know what conditions we may be diagnosed with in the future, the same way we can’t predict or foresee an accident. However we all run the risk of becoming incapacitated, and everyone should have a Lasting Power of Attorney in place so that in the event of it happening to us, we have nominated someone that we choose to step in and look after us in our moment of need, be it a relative, family friend, spouse or partner by taking control and making a Lasting Power of Attorney you have a say as to who can act for you
With 12.5 million people in the UK over the age of 65 and only just under 1 million LPA’s registered with the Court of Protection, we should all take this research seriously and take control to ensure we have the people we trust making decisions on our behalf.