DH: Dementia strategy for England not out until New Year

The national dementia strategy for England will not be out until the New Year, the Department of Health confirmed today.

Campaigners had been expecting the strategy to be published this week, but the DH said that more work was needed to finalise the document and it would be out “early in the New Year”.

When the consultation on the dementia strategy was launched in June, the DH said it would be out in the autumn, prompting hopes it would be published at the National Children and Adult Services Conference in October.

However, this did not happen and an expected November publication deadline also slipped.

Improve quality and deal with spike

The strategy is designed to improve the quality of dementia care while ensuring services deal with the expected spike in the number of people with the condition over the coming decades.

Specific proposals in the consultation paper included:-

• The creation of early intervention services in all areas, at a cost of £220m a year, to provide diagnosis, information and care for people with dementia and their families.
• All staff working with people with dementia to be trained to an agreed set of standards.
• Dementia care advisers to be appointed for all service users to help them navigate the system.
• All care homes to be required to provide for people with dementia.

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