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Published Friday, February 21 by the Chronicle Herald:

Darce Fardy is doing something brave. He is talking about being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, which is the most common cause of dementia. Fardy is not just drawing attention to this problem. He is giving us a new way to think about it. He is challenging us in how to live well with dementia.

His timing is impeccable. The new provincial government aims to develop a dementia strategy in just one year. This is ambitious. There is no shortage of tough subjects. On some, the public is engaged. We know that many people with mild dementia can drive, but no one with moderate dementia can.

As the notifbutwhen.ca website shows, we must plan in every case that, at some point, driving will stop. In long-term care, we know that the wait list policy encourages people to go into nursing homes sooner than they really need to do so. Combining that with institutional incentives to select people with the fewest impairments means that often it is easiest to get care when you don’t really need it.

Overcoming those perverse incentives will take work, but the high rates of institutional care in Nova Scotia oblige us to not just build more beds.

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