Champion Group holds first meeting to address PM's "dementia challenge"

The Dementia Health and Care Champion Group, part of a Department of Health initiative to drive improvements and action plans throughout community-based dementia care, held its first meeting yesterday to outline the main issues faced in meeting the Prime Minister’s ‘dementia challenge’.

Co-chaired by Sarah Pickup, the president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) and Sir Ian Carruthers OBE, chief executive of NHS South of England, the Group have added several key goals to the ‘dementia challenge’ that include: improved end of life care for people diagnosed with dementia; improving housing and social care accommodation to support independent living; promoting partnership working between health service and local and government; and reducing the overreliance on medication that care services have been criticised for.

Welcoming the initiative, Care Services Minister Paul Burstow said: “We are determined to go further and faster in bringing real improvements to the care and support people with dementia and their carers receive in all settings.

“Early diagnosis is key as it allows people to plan for their future, preventing the need for crisis intervention, premature admission to hospital care, and this delivers better outcomes for people with dementia, enabling them to live well.”

ADASS president Sarah Pickup spoke of the importance of engaging with the workforce: “Despite the challenging times we live in there is much we can do to ensure better understanding of dementia; that the workforce is trained to understand and support people with dementia with compassion and dignity, and that people can access the information, support and services that will support them to live well with dementia.”

The UK is set to become ever more dependent on the effectiveness of its dementia care services, with demographic experts predicting an ageing population that will continue to grow over many decades. The Alzheimer’s Research Trust currently estimates that dementia costs the UK £23m a year.

The Champion Groups are expected to report to the Prime Minister in September, and again in March 2013, with the aim of achieving major developments by 2015 that will succeed in making the UK a world leader in care for dementia.

Image: Care Services Minister Paul Burstow meets a resident of Gaynesford Lodge Day centre; courtesy of Liberal Democrats’ photostream