---

Dementia Sufferers

I am well briefed. I congratulate the hon. Member for Rugby and Kenilworth (Jeremy Wright) on securing this debate on a crucial issue. It seems that the issue will touch an increasing number of families—indeed, we know that that is happening. Many people seem incredibly uncomfortable talking about it, but it will become a growing challenge for our society. I have said that we need to bring dementia out of the shadows. It asks questions of the health and social care system—and families and society—that we have not been able to address that issue thus far. Together we need to find a solution. We need to match our ambition to find a solution to the scale of the challenge. I thought that the hon. Gentleman's speech was thoughtful. I am delighted that he is to be the chairman of the all-party parliamentary group, and I look forward to working with the group to make a difference. In response to an important point that he made, I shall talk about the national strategy, but developing and announcing that strategy will be only the beginning of the journey. The key will be the delivery and implementation of change in every community, so that people who use services, and their families, have a very different experience from the one that many have so far had. The parliamentary group and, indeed, Parliament, have an important role in making sure that that happens. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Guildford (Anne Milton). I was not looking anxiously at her, but at the hon. Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr. Stuart), because he and I know each other rather well. I congratulate the hon. Lady on making this one of the rare occasions when an Opposition spokesman has not made a partisan point of any kind. That inspires tremendous respect for her, because this debate needs to be conducted on an all-party basis. I also pay tribute to the hon. Member for Southport (Dr. Pugh) for a thoughtful speech in which he raised issues that have not been raised elsewhere in the context of dementia. He raised the matter of elder abuse, which is sadly another growing problem in our society. I suspect that our public discourse on elder abuse is now at the same stage as our public discourse on child abuse was 20 or 30 years ago. Sadly, as I said this week, society is not as outraged by the abuse of an older person as it is by the abuse of a child, something with which we should all want to address. The hon. Member for Southport also referred to therapeutic interventions. Older people need to be supported in maintaining their health for as long as possible, so early intervention and prevention are crucial. My view is that not enough work is going on in communities to deal with loneliness and isolation among older people. Politicians of any colour never said, in passing the 1990s community care legislation or in developing policies since 1997, that it was not the responsibility of local communities, local authorities or anyone else to treat older people's loneliness and isolation as a shared responsibility, and programmes were introduced to address those issues. In our thinking about social care, addressing loneliness and isolation should be an integral part of the system.