Health and social care leaders drive improvements in dementia services
Last month the Prime Minister announced plans to make the UK a world leader on dementia. The programme aims to deliver major improvements in dementia care, dementia awareness and dementia research by 2015. Three 'Champion Groups' are being established to lead the work on each strand.
Actions set out for improving dementia care include increasing diagnosis, rewarding best practice, and ensuring memory services are both established across the country and accredited, giving people with dementia access to high quality services. The Dementia Health and Care Champion Group, co-chaired by Sarah Pickup, President of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) and Sir Ian Carruthers OBE, Chief Executive of NHS South of England, held its first meeting today.
The group will take a broad approach to tackling the issue of dementia services, with a focus on how social care services, the NHS and local government organisations can work together to effect real change.