A report to Devon County Council’s People’s Scrutiny Committee next Monday, March 20, looks at the progress made on Devon’s multi-agency strategy for supporting people with dementia and their families or carers.
It also looks at why Devon has more people in residential care with dementia than other comparable areas, and how local communities are playing a growing part in helping people living with dementia and their carers.
The task group behind the report said there have been ‘fantastic’ developments over the last decade in dementia awareness, diagnosis, care and carers support, and medical professionals have a much greater understanding and awareness of dementia when it presents.
It said professionals are better able to offer advice and signposting at an earlier stage. Community support in many areas of Devon is ‘excellent’, and memory cafes have been a huge success needing relatively little funding upfront and then becoming self-supporting, providing good value.
However, the report says the county council still needs to work to support communities and external organisations promoting dementia friendly activities. One of the challenges is in ensuring that there is a consistency of provision across Devon.
The task group took evidence from across the county. The success of the work happening in towns such as Honiton is clear, it said, but other communities need to be galvanised to do the same.
The group said prevention through education is key to reducing demand for services in future. Greater dementia awareness and education is still needed amongst the general public, but also for county council staff and members, particularly around the different types of dementia and possible contributory factors.
Cllr Sara Randall Johnson, chairman of the Spotlight Review, said: ‘The impact dementia has on the lives of those who are living with the condition and their family is massive yet can be little understood outside the family.
‘This light touch report is part of ongoing work to encourage more people to be aware of dementia and how it can change lives so radically.
‘There is some excellent work being carried out in Devon to provide support and spread awareness in the community. The county council is well placed through its networks to help facilitate reaching all parts of Devon. As we all know one body cannot do this work alone but by drawing as many partners together such as memory cafes, dementia alliances and district authorities as examples of how support can be provided.’
The task group’s recommendations include a continual roll out programme of dementia awareness training, encouraging all members and staff to become ‘dementia friends’; a refresh of the mapping on the Dementia Roadmap for Devon website, to evaluate the level of community support for dementia across Devon; Devon Farm Estates Committee, as a landlord, to consider Plymouth University’s recent research into the impact of dementia on the farming community and how it might affect the county council’s tenants; and learning from the memory cafes, dementia friendly communities and dementia friends extend approach to learning disability services.
The report will be presented to the People’s Scrutiny Committee from 2pm on Monday March 20.
Members of the public can attend the meeting or watch live at http://devon.cc/72zzn