As submissions for the Mind poetry anthology, 'Please Hear What I'm Not Saying' flooded in, a trend emerged - and one which, perhaps, is not as surprising as I first thought.

A lot of submissions were written about Alzheimer's disease.

In my experience, mental health used to be portrayed in the media as mainly associated with teenage years, but at the opposite end of the scale in terms of age range, currently the UK sees a massive strain due to the poor mental health of the elderly, whether through loneliness or through the strain of becoming a carer to loved ones, who may suffer from Alzheimer's or Dementia.

There are 850,000 people with Dementia in the UK, with numbers set to rise to over 1 million by 2025. This will soar to 2 million by 2051. 225,000 will develop Dementia this year, that's one every three minutes. 1 in 6 people over the age of 80 have Dementia.

It is not surprising, then, that people need to talk about how their mental health has been affected by the loss of their loved ones - I myself have experienced the deterioration of a loved one to this cruel disease.

It is difficult to know what the solution is - whether this is funding to research charities, or government support for those affected. What is for sure, is that with numbers rising by the day, there will be more strain on our NHS and our mental health services.

I hope that writing can preserve our memories of loved ones in a way which eases the pain of these diseases somewhat and if you need anymore information, please visit this website: https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/

#opinion #CharityBook