Enhancing the care environment for people living with dementia

On 21 June 2019 the House of Commons Library published a briefing paper entitled Dementia: Policy, services and statistics, which reviews the policies, services and statistical evidence pertinent to people living with dementia in England (Powell and Baker, 2019).

This parliamentary briefing gives details of several campaigns and policies on dementia care in the UK, one of which is the campaign led by the Alzheimer's Society entitled ‘Fix Dementia Care’. This campaign calls for the state to play a larger role in underwriting the costs of dementia care. Over the past two decades, the average cost of a nursing home place for someone living with dementia has almost doubled and is now nearing £1000 a week, with typical costs amounting to, on average, £100 000 over the course of the illness (Alzheimer's Society, 2019).

The House of Commons briefing paper reviews a range of English policies aimed at improving dementia diagnosis, care, support and research. There are an estimated 850 000 people living with dementia in the UK and it is predicted that this number will double by 2040. In recognition of the scale of the problem, the Government has set itself an objective to become a world leader in tackling the management of dementia and has given a commitment to improve diagnosis, care and support, and research (Powell and Baker, 2019).