The word 'dementia' describes a set of symptoms that may include memory loss and difficulties with thinking, problem-solving or language. Dementia is caused when the brain is damaged by diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease or a series of strokes. Alzheimer’s is the main form of dementia, accounting for 60 – 70 per cent of all cases.
Each person is unique and will experience dementia in their own way. The different types of dementia tend to affect people differently, especially in the early stages. How others respond to the person, and how supportive or enabling the person's surroundings are, also greatly affect how well someone can live with dementia.
A person with dementia will have cognitive symptoms (problems with thinking or memory). They will often have problems with some of the following:
-day-to-day memory - difficulty recalling events that happened recently
-concentrating, planning or organising - difficulties making decisions, solving problems or carrying out a sequence of tasks (eg cooking a meal)
- language - difficulties following a conversation or finding the right word for something
As well as these cognitive symptoms, a person with dementia will often have changes in their mood. For example, they may become frustrated or irritable, withdrawn, anxious, easily upset or unusually sad.
With some types of dementia, the person may see things that are not really there (visual hallucinations) or believe things that are not true (delusions).
Dementia is progressive, which means the symptoms gradually get worse over time. How quickly dementia progresses varies greatly from person to person.
As dementia progresses, the person may develop behaviours that seem unusual or out of character. These behaviours may include repetitive questioning, pacing, restlessness or agitation. They can be distressing or challenging for the person and their carer.
This Government has already taken strong steps to improve the care we provide for people with dementia. We have more than doubled the annual funding for dementia research and we are investing £44 million for European research into new drugs to treat Alzheimer’s. We will also increase awareness of dementia by ensuring that all 1.3 million NHS staff receive training on the condition and by widening our awareness campaign, ‘Dementia Friends’, from one million to three million people.
I was pleased to undergo the Dementia training at the Lockswood Care Centre. Increasing awareness and improving care for people with Alzheimer’s is vital so that they do not feel isolated and abandoned. The training really opened my eyes to the realities of this illness and how we can support those directly affected by it. Local Dementia Action Alliances, with the Alzheimer's Society, bring together people with dementia, their carers and key organisations to take practical actions to enable people to live well with dementia. There are now over one million people who have signed up as Dementia Friends.
Other progress has been made at the national level. Jeremy Hunt announced in March 2015 the £67 million Dementia Discovery Fund at the World Health Organisation’s First Ministerial Conference on Global Action Against Dementia. We are investing in the fund along with pharmaceutical companies and Alzheimer’s Research UK. We are also encouraging joint action to conduct Alzheimer drug trials, contributing £44 million to a £460 million European fund to fund research into neurodegenerative diseases, involving UK universities and research institutions.
Our aim is to make the UK a world leader in dementia research. We have more than doubled the annual funding for dementia research, from £26.6 million in 2009/10 to £66 million in 2015/16, and have invested £50 million into improving the facilities that hospitals and care homes have to cater for people with dementia. We will also invest £300 million into creating an international institute for dementia research in England within five years.
Some constituents have been in touch with me about the waiting time for diagnostic tests for dementia. In some parts of the country it can take nearly six months for a diagnostic test to check for dementia, whereas in others it can take as little as six. We are investing £90 million to reduce this regional disparity to an average of six weeks waiting time, so people can be aware that they have the illness and have more time to plan.