Dementia strategy must no longer be ignored
Editorial Department • Published 28 Apr 2011 13:00
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It's a life-changing issue that is affecting more and more people in Northern Ireland yet there is no definitive strategy to deal with it.
The Department of Health has no strategy for dealing with dementia here -- and that's three years after the Executive gave a commitment to put the policy in place.
Dementia currently costs an eye-watering £400 million a year and millions more in private care costs. There are currently 18,000 sufferers in Northern Ireland and that figure is predicted to treble over the next 40 years.
It is a tremendously pressing health issue but the plan to deal with it has been put on the back burner and it won't be until after the election that it can even be looked at. And it's not even top of the list, or anywhere near it, when the time comes around.
Amazingly a blueprint on the way forward -- how the burden to pay for this will be carved up -- has been sitting on a shelf in the Department of Health since September last year.
Northern Ireland is the last place in the UK for a strategy to be put in place. Half of Northern Ireland's dementia sufferers are in residential care, a much higher proportion than any other parts of the UK.
Crucially, every day there is a delay could potentially mean more people waiting to be diagnosed. And early diagnosis is key.
With the elections coming up next week, there will be a new Health Minister in place by the end of next month. That appointment is crucial for many parts of the health care system, not least the thousands of people of suffer or will suffer from this condition.
The Health Minister needs to move this issue much further up the agenda if people's needs are going to be properly met.
This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 28 Apr 11
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