Letter: Northern Ireland Assembly must urgently publish and deliver a bold new dementia strategy
A letter from Ruth Barry:
To mark Dementia Action Week, Alzheimer’s Society has published new findings that show dementia patients routinely face long delays to diagnosis, alongside major gaps in treatment and support.
Delays of this scale have become normalised for dementia - Northern Ireland’s biggest killer - but would not be accepted for cancer or heart disease.
Northern Ireland faces the largest projected increase in dementia prevalence in the UK with the number of people living with the condition expected to increase by 51% by 2040.
Without decisive action, the cost of dementia is projected to double from £1 billion to £2 billion per year by 2040 and outcomes will only worsen.
For too many families, a diagnosis marks the start of uncertainty rather than support. The system is not yet delivering coordinated, end-to-end support. People are waiting too long for answers and too many are left without the help they need afterwards.
New polling of almost 800 adults across Northern Ireland shows overwhelming public support for change. More than 9 in 10 people support improvements to timely diagnosis, greater investment in diagnostic services and better support for unpaid carers.
We must not wait any longer for action. We are calling on the Northern Ireland Assembly to urgently publish and deliver a bold new dementia strategy, one that provides the ambition and accountability needed to drive real change for everyone living with dementia in Northern Ireland.
We have a clear Roadmap for Change which includes ambitious new dementia diagnosis rates and investment in diagnostic infrastructure, mandatory dementia training for social care staff and expansion of community-based care. We also need much better dementia data to promote accountability and address regional inequalities.
Yet we are also entering a fundamentally different era. For the first time, there is a clear opportunity to change the trajectory of dementia - if the system is ready to act.
Scientific research is moving forward at an incredible pace and there are new breakthrough drugs on the horizon. But unless we improve diagnosis and prepare our health system now, too many people risk missing out.
One in three of us will develop dementia - we can and must do better. Let’s raise our voices this Dementia Action Week (May 18-23).
The decisions made now will shape dementia outcomes for people now, the next generation and beyond. We cannot afford to wait any longer for action.
Ruth Barry, National influencing manager, Alzheimer's Society