Dementia

Serious Illness Definition

Dementia is one of the illnesses covered by our Serious Illness Benefit. We define it as a definite diagnosis of dementia, which may include Alzheimer's disease, by a consultant neurologist, psychiatrist or geriatrician. The dementia must result in the permanent clinical loss of the ability to do all of the following:

• remember,
• reason, and
• perceive, understand, express and give effect to ideas

What is dementia?

Dementia is a term used to describe the clinical effects caused by a number of different diseases. All of these diseases affect the brain. They cause a progressive loss of memory and mental ability. This eventually makes it impossible for the affected person to perform even the simplest everyday tasks without help.