A new healthcare service aims to tackle dementia in Bermuda.

Bermuda Alzheimer’s and Memory Services offers cognitive screening, in-home nursing and assessment services and education for patients and their families.

Founders Jo-Ann Cousins-Simpson and Maxine Simmons are also planning to open a specialised nursing home in the next year for patients who can no longer live at home.

“There is a need for it,” Dr Cousins-Simpson told The Royal Gazette. “It’s a tall order but we are going to be doing it.”

According to the GP, there are about 2,000 people on the island with dementia.

But estimates for Britain and the United States suggest only 40 per cent of people with the disease have had it diagnosed, and Dr Cousins-Simpson believes the same applies in Bermuda.

“So it is a lot more,” she said, adding that in the past people often avoided going to their doctors because they believed nothing could be done.

But new research has shown dementia can be delayed and reversed if caught early, she said.

There have been repeated calls for a dementia care unit and Dr Cousins-Simpson founded Beams with Ms Simmons, clinical nurse co-ordinator at the hospital, “to tackle the problem of dementia in Bermuda”.

“Right now, there are little pockets where they go to their GP and a lot of patients complain because they are just given a diagnosis and then they’re left,” Dr Cousins-Simpson said. “They need follow-up.”

While there is no cure, she said patients “are going to have concerns and dementia brings along other stuff — there is the wandering, the sun-downing, the aggressiveness”.

“It’s not the same as other types of illnesses and you cannot just treat it the same way.”

She added that early diagnosis also allows patients to plan ahead when it comes to finances or where they want to go once they can no longer stay at home.

“You can make so many other decisions,” she said. “You take charge of your life, you take charge of your health.”

Because a dementia diagnosis can be overwhelming for both patients and their families, education will be a big component.

As a first step to educating the wider public, Dr Cousins-Simpson organised the first Beams Alzheimer’s and Dementia summit in April and they plan to make this an annual event.

Resources will also be available at the new clinic, which opened in Maiden House at 131 Front Street this week, as well as online.

“The other part is an in-home nursing and assessment service,” she said. “That’s already started, where we do assessments of patients in-home in terms of dementia.

“But this is a nursing service — if Maxine goes and she thinks they need a doctor, she could call me.”

Ms Simmons will assesses what’s needed in the home and what level of care is required, and Dr Cousins-Simpson said: “The spin-off from that is that we will help to provide some of that care.”

A priority will be making sure patients can stay in their homes for as long as possible.

Ms Simmons said this is better for the patients, who tend to already be confused and a new environment and different people can make this worse.

“They identify with the past and the past is home,” she said, adding that this is what the Government has been pushing for, “so we come in right in sync with the Government”.

And Dr Cousins-Simpson added: “If patients can stay home, that alone will help their personalities, instead of putting them in a strange place with strange people who are rotating.”

The new clinic is also offering cognitive screening for at-risk patients.

“It’s actually a short version — it’s going to dictate whether you need longer tests,” Dr Cousins-Simpson explained.

She added that at a cost of about $100 it is a cheaper alternative to the “whole barrage of tests” normally ordered.

“In practicality, not all dementia diagnoses demand an MRI. Cognivue will save us — us meaning the health system — a lot of money.”

The clinic will also have a doctor’s office, which will be up and running once her work permit has been approved, “to take on the whole diagnosis and management of dementia patients”.

Both women, who have more than 35 years between them in the medical profession, eventually plan to transition to Beams full-time.

Dr Cousins-Simpson said they will be looking to employ about 37 staff including nurses, nursing aides and office staff.

“It may be even more than that, as we get bigger and the need arises.”

For more information, call 292-3267, e-mail admin@beamsbermuda.org or visit www.beamsbermuda.org