Abstract
Alzheimer’s Society is the UK’s leading dementia charity. We provide information and support, improve care, fund research, and create lasting change for people affected by dementia.
Our New Deal on Support, which forms part of our Strategy, The New Deal on Dementia, has developed a unique approach to influencing the development of effective integrated care for people with dementia, driving improvements in access to high quality care and support that understands and meets their needs.
The current situation is unacceptable and unsustainable. Our analysis shows that people with dementia and their carers have to navigate up to 20 different professionals, through NHS and social care, to get the support they need. This often results in a person with dementia, or their carer, having to tell their story twenty times, which is nineteen too many. Our new deal on support links with the integration agenda to ensure that people are diagnosed in a timely way, and that they and their carers are supported to live the lives they want.
By 2022 Alzheimer's Society will be providing information and support to anyone who needs it, in the way they need it. Dementia Connect, our new multi-channel information, advice and support service will give people access to tiered advice, support and self-management services. The service supports innovation coming out of the national health and social care integration and personalisation agenda, and how we can address the continued challenges that face people affected by dementia, as well as the health and care workforce. Our wider integration influencing and engagement activity includes the publication of our 10 Point Plan ‘Why integrate Dementia Care?’ This tool, developed with input from people affected by dementia and supported by NHS England, is aimed at local health services and government to enable them to realise their ambitions for an efficient integrated health and social care system.
Our work in this area clearly demonstrates the voluntary sector’s essential role in the development and implementation of high quality, responsive care and support, identifying the opportunities for joint working to build on this further to meet the needs of people living with dementia.