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Dementia Services

I beg to move,"That this House wishes to see the quality of life improve for the 700,000 people in the UK with dementia; pays tribute to their families and carers and all those who campaign and fundraise for dementia charities; is concerned about the findings published in the National Audit Office report on Improving dementia services in England, HC 82, that showed the Government had failed to implement robustly the Dementia Strategy; calls on the Government to publish the report of the Nutrition Action Plan Delivery Board, which was submitted in July 2009, and in particular to respond to the inappropriate tube feeding of those in dementia care; deplores the inappropriate use of anti-psychotic drugs in the care of those with dementia; is concerned that 50,000 elderly people are forced to sell their home every year to pay for their long-term care; is concerned that the effect of the Personal Care at Home Bill will not help those with dementia in residential care; calls on the Government to prioritise research to combat dementia; proposes that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence assess the wider societal value of treatments in its appraisals; and further calls on the Government to adopt a social care insurance model for residential care costs and to recognise dementia within a wider reform of social care." We have brought this motion before the House because we are deeply anxious about the welfare of the rising number of dementia sufferers and their families, and of every elderly person in the UK who is having to live with the effects of an unreformed social care sector. Let us be clear about the scale of this issue. Of the 8.2 million people who are over 65 and of the 6 million people who use social care, 700,000 people have been diagnosed with dementia in the United Kingdom—and that figure is set to double over the next 30 years. In other words, about one in 10 of all social care users has dementia. In the context of a rapidly increasing awareness generally, the Government have promised much but delivered little to this group of people.