New research reveals desperate families seeking affordable care overseas for relatives with the disease
A growing number of elderly sufferers of dementia are being sent to Thailand by families struggling to meet the cost of care in the UK, according to new research.
The Guardian reports that researchers visiting private care homes for dementia patients in Chiang Mai, a city in northern Thailand, have found “eight homes where guests from the UK are living thousands of miles away from their families”.
The majority of these patients have been sent to the Southeast Asian nation because “suitable care in their home country was impossible to find or afford”, says the newspaper.
Recent figures from the Alzheimer’s Society suggest that there are currently around 850,000 people with dementia in the UK – a number that is projected to rise to 1.6 million by 2040.
(Source: – The Week)