Dementia is now the UK’s biggest killer and one three people born in the country today will go on to develop the condition in their lifetime.
Figures from the Alzheimer’s Society, published in 2024, show that approximately one million people in the UK currently have a form of dementia and this is predicted to rise to 1.4 million by 2040.
Because the number of people living with dementia is now on the rise, more must be done to ensure that the appropriate level of care is provided, even if treatments can be developed quickly.
A new report from the Nuffield Trust thinktank is now calling for changes to be made to the social care system to help ensure that support provision is sufficient to help people with dementia manage their daily lives.
Social care is important in helping people who need support, for whatever reason, to lead fulfilling and independent lives for as long as they can, helping with personal care and hygiene, daily living, attending social activities and so on.
This can be accessed in their own homes, care homes or in local communities, as well, but high quality dementia care is not currently equally accessible, with some local areas performing better than others at ensuring standards of care are available for dementia patients.
Challenges facing the social care sector in helping those with dementia include the fact that specific support is often required from but many services have shut down because they’re too expensive to run without support from the local council. Many care homes are also not set up appropriately to provide complex care.
Furthermore, staff and unpaid carers themselves do not receive enough support to help them provide necessary care and there is also currently insufficient action from the government detailing what good dementia care can look like, with no specific standards set for care providers.
Key recommendations from the Nuffield Trust to improve dementia care include councils developing the right types of services to suit the needs of both dementia patients and their carers, and integrating care systems to plan better and ensure that all services required work cohesively.
Additionally, organisations such as the government and the NHS should look at places already providing excellent care and use them to showcase what good care looks like, as well as developing a national workforce strategy that supports good quality training.
The Trust also wants to see more funding for unpaid carers and more information collected on people with dementia to better understand how services can be planned and the appropriate support therefore provided.
The report concluded that although the current government has pledged to set up a National Care Service, with the aim being to create a more functional system, this feels like “a distant and ill-defined prospect at present”.
However, commitments have been made to deliver more dementia training to social care workforces, alongside reformed pay and terms and conditions… but the Trust is keen to see this both designed and targeted effectively.
