Social Support Systems European Collaboration on Dementia There
are many different forms of dementia of which Alzheimer’s
disease is the most common. Dementia is not actually a disease
but rather a set of symptoms (or a syndrome in medical terms).
It involves progressive damage to the brain and causes a gradual
deterioration of people’s functional capacity as well as changes
in their roles, responsibilities and social relations. All these
changes and losses affect the person’s identity and sense of
self. Dementia affects other people too i.e. relatives and
others in the person’s social network. As the disease
progresses, effects become increasingly evident and the person
with dementia becomes more dependent on other people for help
and support. There are currently over 6 million people with
dementia in the European Union and it is predicted that this
number will double in the next 20 years along with the ageing of
the population. There are also millions of carers, often elderly
people with limited resources,