Oral - Statement on the Dementia Plan

The impact of dementia is felt by almost every family in Wales. I am committed to ensuring that in Wales, people with dementia are supported fully and receive the help, dignity and respect that they deserve. It is clear that responsibility for ensuring that this happens is shared across society. Health services, social care, and the third sector need to work together to improve the lives of people with dementia and the lives of the people who care for them. In recognition of the need to improve care and plan for people with dementia, I established a high-level dementia task and finish expert group in October 2008, which was chaired by Ian Thomas, director of the Alzheimer’s Society in Wales. This brought together health professionals and key stakeholders to develop actions to meet the challenge of dementia. The group produced a paper last year, which underwent a national consultation. This consultation produced a range of responses, as well as three very well-attended and successful consultation events.

In January, the Deputy Minister for Social Services and I met with members of the task and finish expert group to agree the next steps following the consultation. As a result of this meeting and consultation, four areas were identified as being key to improving the lives of people with dementia and their families in Wales. These areas were improving service provision through better joint-working across health, social care, the third sector and other agencies; improving early diagnosis and timely interventions; improving access to information and support for people with the illness and their carers, along with a greater awareness of the need for advocacy; and, improving training for those delivering care. To take these forward, I asked the four stakeholder groups to prepare advice for me on actions in each of these priority areas. These groups have independent chairs drawn from the national health service, local authorities and the third sector. The actions needed to bring about the tangible improvements to services for people diagnosed with dementia and their carers, and to be deliverable in the current financial climate.

These four groups have now reported back to me, and it is clear that excellent progress has been made. The proposals for action cover the full range of priorities, and together will bring about a significant development in services for people with dementia and their carers. They include improving training for those working in primary care to ensure that there is better access to early diagnosis; increasing support and information for those diagnosed with dementia and their carers; improving training for those delivering dementia care within the NHS, local authorities and the independent sector; additional support services for carers; increasing awareness of dementia among the public to help create dementia-supportive communities; and, ongoing research into dementia. I wish to take this opportunity to thank all of those who have worked on the expert groups, as well as those who contributed to the consultation. All have helped ensure that practical actions have been produced to tackle the key priorities. These are also now available on the Welsh Assembly Government website. It is now therefore time to focus on operational delivery and genuine meaningful service improvements. I have requested that the newly established adult mental health programme board take forward this work and deliver real change to those diagnosed with dementia and to their carers. The programme board is chaired by Mary Burrows, the chief executive of the Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board, who will now work with the chairs of the four stakeholder groups, as well as the other key players, including the NHS, local authorities and the third sector, to turn the proposals into action.

Alongside that work, I have asked the LHBs to implement the new intelligent targets for dementia. The key requirements in this year’s annual operating framework targets are: at the first point of contact, to reduce the time between the onset of symptoms and a diagnosis being communicated to the service user and their family; to improve the quality of general hospital care for people with dementia; to reduce their length of stay and to improve the percentage of relatives satisfied with the care that is received; to reduce the inappropriate use of anti-psychotic medications in accordance with the NICE guidelines and to improve the support provided to care givers.

A great deal of work has therefore taken place to identify the actions required to ensure that we have effective services for people with dementia in Wales. The task now is to ensure that real improvements for individuals and their families are delivered through the priority actions that have been identified. It is also clear that we will need effective interagency working and collaboration across all sectors to ensure that those real improvements that are proposed are delivered within the available resources. Presiding Officer, that concludes my statement this afternoon.