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Dementia Policy

Jerry Bird & Helen Wiggins

Department of Health Dementia Policy Team

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Dementia: Key facts

1. 670,000 people in England with dementia - number will double in 30 years.

2. 21m people know a close friend or family member with dementia – that’s 42% of the population.

3. 45% of people with dementia in England receive a formal diagnosis

4. But with early intervention, and access to the right services and support, people with dementia can continue to live well with the condition for many years.

5. And it is possible to reduce your risk of vascular dementia through a healthier lifestyle.

6. Costs society £19bn a year, more than the costs of cancer, heart disease or stroke.

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Dementia: The ambition

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The PM Challenge on DementiaAim:Build on existing work and achievements delivered via the National Dementia Strategy (2009) and set out a renewed ambition to secure greater improvements in dementia care and research by 2015.

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Progress to date: Driving improvements in health and care

• NHS England national ambition on diagnosis rates: Aim by 2015 for two-thirds of people with dementia to have a diagnosis, with appropriate post diagnosis support.

• Enhanced Service as part of the GP contract for 2013/14: Rewarding practices for having a pro-active approach to identifying the early signs of dementia.

• PHE: Dementia one of its seven high level priorities.

• Extended Dementia Commissioning for Quality and Innovation award: For 2013/14 covers quality of dementia care and support for carers.

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Progress to date: Dementia Friendly Communities • Dementia Friends: 2247 people signed up to train as

volunteer Dementia Friends Champions. Over 500 trained with the potential to reach over 100,000 members of the public.

• Dementia friendly places: Over 50 cities, towns and villages already taking action to become dementia friendly, more than doubling the original aim of 20 places by 2015.

• Dementia education pioneer programme: Work underway in 21 schools to test different approaches to educating children and young people about dementia.

• Nationwide awareness raising campaign: Reached out to over 37m people (83% agreed they would encourage a friend or relative to see their GP if they thought they had symptoms of dementia)

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Progress to date:Better Research• National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) funding: £22

million available to 21 pioneering research projects to boost dementia diagnosis rates and trial ground-breaking treatments.

• Major investment in brain scanning: £9.6m being provided by MRC for a pilot study involving 8,000 volunteers, to be expanded over time to scan the brains of 100,000 Biobank participants.

• DH and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funding: £13m for social science research proposals in preventing dementia.

• G8 Dementia Research Summit: December 2013

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Next steps

The three Champion Groups have highlights three key areas for their work going forward:•Greater collaboration: Across the three Champion Groups on shared themes and with new delivery partners to embed early successes, continue to build momentum and sustain improvements over the longer term.•Reaching out further: Encouraging other and more diverse sections of the community to play a role in the drive towards dementia friendly communities.•Influencing the wider system: Working with NHSE, PHE, HEE, CQC and others to influence and support their work programmes. Exploring the opportunity to work with a number of exemplar Health and Wellbeing Boards and to disseminate learning at national level.

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Examples of projects currently beingfunded

• Alzheimer’s Society on local Dementia Actions Alliances

• Housing 21 – a project on housing and dementia. 

• Dementia UK - Carers as Educators

• The Butterfly Scheme - developing a system of evaluation for the scheme. 

• National Development Team for Inclusion, Circles of Support for people with dementia. 

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Possible Future Work

• Post-diagnosis support

• Dementia and BME communities

• Domiciliary Care

• Improving the environment of care

• Technology