‘A feeling of sorrow:’ Caregiver discusses husband’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis

Alzheimer’s and dementia continue to affect many people in Saskatchewan.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia. It’s a progressive disease, beginning with mild memory loss and possibly leading to a loss of the ability to carry on a conversation and respond to the environment.

According to the Alzheimer’s Society of Canada, over the next 30 years, dementia is expected to cost the province more than $35.9 billion in health costs, unpaid caregiver opportunity costs, and indirect costs associated with dementia and the provision of unpaid care.

Today, there are approximately 19,000 cases of dementia in Saskatchewan. By 2038, that number is expected to jump to 28,000 people with some form of dementia, which would account for up to 2.3 per cent of the province’s population.

Saltcoats resident Merle Wiley is a caregiver for her 72-year-old husband Dean, who has Alzheimer’s. Dean began taking medication for Alzheimer’s in November of 2020.

Wiley says their lives have been changed since receiving the diagnosis.

“It was a feeling of sorrow and heartbreak and the loss of my husband, not in the physical sense but watching and assisting a once strong and able-bodied man and the looks of confusion when he’s trying to remember something and the new behaviours that he has been displaying, listening to his voice, his concern about what his future is going to bring, what our future is going to bring. In my head, I echo that fear with him,” she told the Greg Morgan Morning Show.

She said those suffering from diseases such as dementia must continue to stay engaged within the community.

“I always say it takes a village to raise a child, but it takes a caring community to support someone and their care partner with Alzheimer’s,” Wiley said.

“You need people to accept you where you are and where they are. Continue to talk and chat. Don’t ignore us now when we go to the post office to get the mail. Make sure you still talk to us and include us in conversations. Dean loves to visit; don’t take that away from him. If you do that, his world shrinks. We need quality days. We don’t need quantity, we need the quality.”

The “A Night to Remember Gala” was held Thursday at the Casino Regina Show Lounge in an effort to raise money for research into the disease. Organizers say the night raised more than $200,000.