Prime Minister attends meeting with dementia-friendly champion group

The Prime Minister has met with one of the three dementia-friendly champion groups set up to meet the Government’s ‘Dementia Challenge’. The groups are committed to driving major improvements in dementia care practice and research by 2015, with the number of people diagnosed with the condition expected to double from its current level of 670,000.

The meeting included representatives from all parts of the sector, including carers and individuals who have dementia, as well as members of local government and Alzheimer’s Society ambassador Angela Ripon and chief executive Jeremy Hughes who co-chaired the meeting.

Addressing the Dementia Challenge the PM spoke of the need for a “whole-society approach”:

“Dementia is a terrible, heartbreaking disease – and tackling it is a personal priority of mine. Two months ago I promised that we’d lead an all-out, national fight-back against dementia – and it’s happening. We’re putting more money into research and more thought into dementia care.

“This is a whole-society problem and it needs a whole-society response. That’s why we are connecting thousands of socially engaged young graduates from National Citizen Service with opportunities to make a difference with old people in their community.

“We’re also encouraging more businesses to join this fight-back. I’m delighted to see the progress being made here. Already 20 big organisations like Lloyds Group, Tesco and E.ON have signed up to become more dementia friendly – and over the coming months I want to see many more follow suit.”

Television journalist and writer Angela Rippon spoke of some of the work undertaken so far: “Over the past few weeks I have been meeting with a whole range of people and talking to them about how important it is that we face up to the dementia challenge. The response I have had has been incredible and it is truly inspirational to have so many major organisations working together to tackle this issue head on. Joint action like this is essential if dementia friendly communities are to become a reality.

“There are 800,000 people living with dementia in the UK. This Dementia Awareness Week is the perfect time to remember the person behind the dementia diagnosis.”

The meeting coincided with the announcement of a new £800,000 funding package to help transform older people’s services, together with an e-learning package for trainee dementia carers which will be available “within weeks” from the Department of Health website.

Image: David Cameron courtesy of Conservative Party photostream