The Alzheimer's Society has published three reports seeking to increase the number of people living with dementia who get a diagnosis.
The three reports each set out an area of change:
- Reducing regional variations in diagnosis
- Supporting those from an ethnic minority community to access a diagnosis
- Increasing diagnosis for people living in a care home or hospital setting
Alzheimer's Society research found diagnosis rates are influenced by regional factors and impacted by the processes at each step of the diagnostic pathway.
It makes a series of recommendations including reviewing access to services to make sure people in rural communities are not impacted in accessing a diagnosis and increasing dementia case finding.
Research also found people from ethnic minority communities experience an inequity of diagnosis, either receiving one late or not at all.
Both community and service barriers contribute to this inequity. Recommendations to improve this include:
- Including organisations representing ethnic minority communities in the planning of services
- Making services more culturally appropriate
- Improving access to, and quality of, interpretation services
Finally, Alzheimer's Society research found identifying, assessing and diagnosing dementia in both a hospital and care home setting is challenging.
Recommendations include enabling better sharing of patient information between care settings and increased access to assessment tools and information.
All three reports are available to download via the link below.