Policy digest: Dementia

Dementia has been highlighted as one of the most pressing issues in healthcare by the government, and has been the focus of several initiatives by the DH. The government has pledged to increase rates of dementia diagnosis. A key aspect of the policy is ensuring two-thirds of the estimated 800,000 people with the condition receive a diagnosis and appropriate post-diagnostic support by March 2015. The DH also introduced an enhanced service for general practices between October 2014 and March 2015 with the aim of further increasing diagnosis rates. In September 2014, NHS England published a toolkit to support general practice staff in making a timely diagnosis and offering them advice on how to provide vital post-diagnostic support. The most recent development was the release of the No Secrets report, which highlighted the vulnerability of people with dementia. The DH also pushed for healthcare workers to receive training on caring for someone with dementia. It is estimated that 377,886 NHS staff out of over 1.3 million had received foundation level dementia training as of January 2015.