Older people with dementia are missing out on vital talking therapies that could significantly improve their lives, according to the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). Taking the opportunity of World Alzheimer’s Day (21 September) to highlight the problem, BACP warned that depression was often confused with dementia and that the depression was wrongly left untreated. Jeremy Bacon, third sector lead at BACP, commented: “In the early stages of dementia, it’s often assumed that all the changes we see in patients are all related to dementia, when in fact they can be symptoms of depression – which are treatable, reversible, and not part of dementia’s neurological condition. Living with dementia commonly gives rise to feelings of depression, anxiety, and loss as people struggle to adjust to changes in their cognition, behaviour and personality.”
