NHS England has included dementia in their 2024/25 priorities and operational planning guidance.   Specifically, National NHS Objectives for 2024/25 say:  “Improve quality of life, effectiveness of treatment, and care for people with dementia by increasing the dementia diagnosis rate to 66.7% by March 2025.”  You can read the guidance here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/PRN00715-2024-to-2025-priorities-and-operational-planning-guidance-27.03.2024.pdf  ..read more

Ex-rugby player Steve Thompson, who was diagnosed with young onset dementia in 2020, has announced that the documentary he made for the BBC entitled ‘Head On: Rugby, Dementia and Me’ that was first aired in October 2022 has had its availability continued on the BBC iPlayer platform.  You can view the documentary here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001ctkw/head-on-rugby-dementia-and-me  ..read more

Alive Activities, in conjunction with Bristol Dementia Wellbeing Service, Alzheimer’s Society and the Football Association, has made a film showing three England footballers experiencing the dementia ‘Empathy Suit’.  The ‘Empathy Suit’ is made up of 13 components which work to inhibit mobility, motor skills, vision and hearing.  CEO of Alive Activities, Isobel Jones, says:  “The Empathy Suit can be quite a moving experience, and we saw how surprised the players were to get a sense of some of the challenges people living with dementia often face. Of course, the most common sympto ..read more

33 MP’s have attended an event in parliament to hear about Dementia UK’s ‘Fix the Funding’ campaign. They heard from people affected by dementia, as well as Chief Admiral Nurse and Dementia UK CEO Hilda Hayo and her Admiral Nursing colleagues, about why the NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) funding process needs to be reviewed.  Dementia UK launched ‘Fix the Funding’ in 2023 to call for fairer care for families affected by dementia who face barriers within the CHC process which prevent them from accessing vital funds to support their care requirements.   MP’s attending the parliam ..read more

Findings from the 2023 British Social Attitudes survey have been published by the Nuffield Trust and The King’s Fund. The survey shows that only 24% of the public are satisfied with the NHS and only 13% are satisfied with social care. These are the lowest levels of satisfaction recorded since the survey began in 1983.  Find out more here: https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/reports/public-satisfaction-nhs-social-care-2023  ..read more

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