Dr Carol Sargent, founder of Sargent Group Consulting and a specialist in inclusive tourism for people living with dementia, has announced Hoe Grange Holidays as the first UK accommodation provider accredited by her as dementia inclusive.  Dr Carol Sargent says:  “The accreditation scheme was inspired by my personal experience with taking both my mum Liz and my mother-in-law Iris away – one had vascular dementia and the other Alzheimer’s. This led to me becoming heavily involved in educating the travel and tourism sector about the dementia community.”  Hoe Grange Holidays provid ..read more

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has announced that it is beginning the development of a dementia strategy.  CQC say this will be a cross-sector strategy that will be shaped by a central question – how can CQC use its role to improve the experience of using health and social care services for people living with dementia and their carers?  Read more here: https://www.caremanagementmatters.co.uk/feature/inside-cqc-dementia-strategy/  You can share your thoughts, experiences, ambitions and innovations for the CQC dementia strategy by emailing: dementiastrategy@cqc.org.uk &nbs ..read more

The Carer Poverty Coalition, a group of 130 national and local organisations campaigning to end poverty amongst unpaid carers, has published a manifesto calling on all political parties to commit to reviewing Carer’s Allowance and other means-tested benefits available to carers. As part of the review, the Coalition also want an examination of the financial support offered to unpaid carers, and an increase of the earnings limit to 21 hours per week to help carers who are able to work part-time to do so.   Emily Holzhausen OBE, Chair of the Carer Poverty Coalition and Director of Polic ..read more

CQC and Healthwatch England has launched a new campaign aiming to amplify the voices of people using care services.   ‘Share for Better Care’ has a particular focus on collecting experiences from people from seldom-heard communities because it is known these individuals are more likely to experience poorer care and inequalities. These communities include:  minority ethnic communities  lower-income communities   autistic people and people with a learning disability   disabled people with physical or sensory impairments.  The campaign is supported b ..read more

The American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced an advisory panel will be convened to scrutinise data on the safety and efficacy of new Alzheimer’s drug donanemab. Donanemab had been expected to be approved by the FDA imminently, but their decision is now delayed until later this year.  UK regulators (along with their European and Australian counterparts) are still assessing the drug.  More information here: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-fda-delays-lilly-alzheimers-drug-decision-calls-advisory-panel-2024-03-08/  ..read more

Deafinitely Theatre has created ‘The Promise’, a stage show that follows the story of a family navigating deafness and dementia.  The creation of ‘The Promise’ has been in conjunction with deaf families experiencing dementia and scientists studying dementia and its impact on deaf people. It has been two years in the making, led by Paula Garfield, the artistic director of Deafinitely Theatre, and journalist Melissa Mostyn, who is deaf and a carer for her daughter.   ‘The Promise’ runs from 6 April to 11 May with a tour that spans Birmingham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Manchester and Lo ..read more

A five-year project to study blood tests for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia has been announced, funded by the Blood Biomarker Challenge (Find out more about this here: https://journalofdementiacare.co.uk/blood-biomarker-challenge-for-dementia-diagnosis).   Led by University College London (the ADAPT study) and the University of Oxford (the READ-OUT study), a range of blood tests will be conducted on around 5,000 volunteers in UK Memory Clinics, with researchers looking for traces of amyloid and tau proteins in the samples, with some tests also looking for potential b ..read more

Skills for Care has dedicated April to Celebrating Social Care, their yearly campaign to highlight the great work being done in the sector. Skills for Care has run this campaign every year since 2022, and encourage participation from across the social care sector.   You can find out more and get involved here:  https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/news-and-events/Spotlight-on/CelebratingSocialCare.aspx ..read more

elearning for Healthcare, in partnership with NHS England, has shared an updated learning resource to support knowledge and understanding of the management of dysphagia.  The Dysphagia Guide e-learning resource has been co-developed with care home staff but is also relevant to other health and social care staff, informal carers and people with dysphagia. The Guide was originally created in 2020 and has been updated for 2024. It is free to access and can be found here: https://www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/dysphagiaguide/  ..read more

Scott Mitchell, husband of the late Dame Barbara Windsor, has been appointed People’s Champion of the Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Mission.  The Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Mission was launched in 2022 by the UK government in memory of Dame Barbara who died of Alzheimer’s disease in 2020. The Mission aims to develop innovative research tools and boost the number and speed of clinical trials into dementia and neurodegeneration.   Alongside Scott’s appointment came an announcement from the UK government about £6 million in funding for ten projects that are using breakthrough te ..read more