Page QQQ Daily Mail, Wednesday, August 7, 2019
or housing wealth.
Miss Copley added: ‘Every day
we hear from people who are
struggling to access good quality
care that they need, often having
to pay for it themselves, whatever
their stage of dementia. Tragically
this doesn’t get any better in a
person’s final days, meaning there
is often still a huge financial bur-
den on families even then, the
most distressing of times.’
Yesterday’s report said dementia
was the leading cause of death for
women and the second biggest
killer for men, after heart disease.
For the sexes combined it is the
biggest cause of deaths. Dr Hilda
Hayo of Dementia UK said: ‘This
is further clear-cut evidence of
why dementia needs to be made a
priority.
‘Rising incidences of dementiamay point to increased public
understanding around the condi-
tion but it does not diminish the
often intense emotional and prac-
tical strain faced by families.
‘The Government needs to domore to integrate the creaking
social and healthcare systems.
‘More access to funding for social
care and specialist dementia sup-
port will undoubtedly help to
relieve the pressures on a strug-gling NHS and allow more families
to live well with dementia.’
n The same ONS report showed
that drug overdoses have over-
taken suicides as the biggest killer
of middle-aged men
Suicide had been the most com-
mon form of death in the 35-49 age
group. But drug overdoses and
accidently poisonings have now
taken over as Britain’s nascent
opiate crisis begins to take hold.
There were 1,336 such deaths in
2018, 12.5 per cent of the total.
Money Mail – Page 43SIGN THE MAIL’S PETITION
change.org/dementiacare
CAMPAIGN
END DEMENTIA
CARE COST
BETRAYAL
DEATH rates among women went up last
year while falling for men.
It is the fifth time in the past 18 years
that female mortality rates have risen.
The Office for National Statistics, which
produced the figures, said they were
fresh evidence that the life expectancy
gap, in which women have historically
lived longer than men, is closing.
The figures showed there were 51,
deaths in England and Wales last year, up
1.6 per cent on the 533,253 of 2017.
It was the highest number of deaths
since 1999, but the ONS said that was
because of the growing population.
Among men, there were 1,120.9 deaths
per 100,000 – 0.3 per cent down on 2017.
The figure for women was 838 per
100,000 – an increase of 0.1 per cent.
Ben Humberstone of the ONS said:
‘Although 2018 saw the highest number
of deaths since 1999, when taking the
age and size of the population into
account, death rates have remained
more or less stable since 2011.
‘Mortality rates fell slightly for males
but rose slightly for females in 2018.
This is likely to close the gap in life
expectancy between the two. We are
continuing to see the levelling-off of
mortality improvements and will
understand more as we analyse this
data further.’
ONS experts have pointed to the
changing lifestyles of men and
women. While large numbers of men
no longer work in dangerous heavy
industry, and many no longer indulge
in risky behaviour such as smoking,
women work in the same offices as
men and may face greater stresses in
making a living.
A report by the ONS in 201 said:
‘Increases in women entering the labour
force over the last 50 years are consid-
ered to have had an impact on levels of
stress, smoking and drinking, leading to
changes in the health of females.’
Last week the ONS said that the switch
by women toward education and
careers has contributed to historically
low birthrates.By Steve Doughty
Social Affairs Correspondentlast year. It has been the nation’s biggest
killer since 2016. The rise in the number of
sufferers is partly down to people living
longer, according to the ONS.
A better understanding of dementia and
improved diagnosis is also likely to have
increased reporting.
Campaigners said the figures must act as
a wake-up call to the Government, which
has been accused of ignoring dementia in
favour of illnesses such as cancer and
heart disease. It invests £82.5million a year
on research into the disease compared
with £269million for cancer.
‘One person develops dementia in the
UK every three minutes and there are still
far too many facing a future alone, without
adequate support,’ said Sally Copley of
the Alzheimer’s Society.
‘We need to act now to tackle the biggest
health crisis of our time. We need the Gov-
ernment to prioritise dementia with a
dedicated NHS Dementia Fund and invest
in a plan for long-term social care reform.’
Dr Alison Evans, head of policy at Alzhe-
imer’s Research UK, warned a million Brit-
ons could be living with dementia by 2021.
She added: ‘Without more research and
better treatments, we will continue to see
dementia burden our health system,
overwhelm our social care resources, and
steal our loved ones from us.’
The Daily Mail launched a campaign
last month calling for a cross-party solu-
tion to the crisis of sufferers selling
homes to pay for care.
More than 219,000 readers have signed
the Mail’s petition calling on Boris John-
son to take action.
Actress Barbara Windsor, who was diag-
nosed with Alzheimer’s in 2014, yesterday
wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister
asking him to fix the system.
Dianne Steene, a solicitor at Steene Law
and specialist in legal matters relating to
care fees, said: ‘Too many people are end-
ing their days having seen their legacies
decimated by care fees – often because
local authorities have misunderstood the
law or because they happened to have the
wrong postcode.
‘The fact that Alzheimer’s and dementia
are now the leading cause of death in the
UK underlines the need for the Govern-
ment to address the care fees crisis with
renewed urgency.’
In the two years since the Government
promised to publish a social care plan,
families have been forced to find £15billion
to support relatives with the illness.
Middle-class families are among the
hardest hit because free care is given only
to those with less than £23,250 in savings
Ex-MP who was jailed for lying is struck off
Picture: TREVOR ADAMSBARBARA Windsor
was out and about
celebrating her 82nd
birthday yesterday
with husband Scott
Mitchell, 56. The
actress, who was
diagnosed five years
ago with Alzheimer’s,
has written a letter
to Boris Johnson
asking him to fix the
social care system.Birthday
Babs still
a fighter
Continued from Page One
Onasanya yesterday
A FORMER MP was struck off as
a solicitor yesterday for lying to
avoid a speeding conviction.
Fiona Onasanya was convicted last
year of perverting the course of
justice and served 28 days of a three-
month prison sentence.
The 35-year-old lost an appeal
against her conviction in March,
before being recalled and replaced
by her constituents.
Despite further protestations of
innocence, a panel at the SolicitorsDisciplinary Tribunal in central Lon-
don banned her from practising law
yesterday. Chairman Edward Nally
said the panel found she had failed
to uphold the rule of law and proper
administration of justice.
It concluded that she had acted
dishonestly and ‘failed to behave in a
way that maintains the trust the
public places in her’.
The former Labour MP, who repre-sented herself, had told the hearing:
‘I maintain that I did not do an act
tending or intending to pervert the
course of public justice.’
She said she was trying to persuade
the Criminal Cases Review Commis-
sion, which investigates alleged mis-
carriages of justice, to look at over-
turning her conviction.
Onasanya was also ordered to pay
£6,562 to cover the costs of the prose-
cution. She qualified as a solicitor in
2015 and stopped practising in 2017when she was elected in Peterbor-
ough with a majority of 607.
But within months of taking her
seat, she colluded with her brother
Festus after her Nissan Micra was
clocked speeding near Cambridge.
Before she was replaced in the
Commons she continued to draw her
£77,379 salary despite being expelled
from the Labour Party.
Onasanya, who attended yester-
day’s tribunal with her mother
Paulina, declined to comment.By Josh WhiteMen narrow
gap in life
expectancy
with women
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