Letter to Editor – Wales Dementia Strategy Recommendations

Dear Editor,

As organisations representing a spectrum of people living with dementia, carers, and health & social care professions, we welcome the forthcoming Welsh Government’s work on developing Wales’ first Dementia Strategy. We want to ensure that the vision for dementia care for Wales is ambitious and achievable.

Welsh Government has commissioned a series of consultation events to involve people affected by dementia in the strategy development. The voices of people affected by dementia should always be central in Welsh Government’s concerns, and should give a strong steer for the direction of the new strategy.

We believe the Dementia Strategy should:

1. Set clear and ambitious targets for increasing dementia diagnosis rates.
2. Ensure that every person with dementia can access support from a Dementia Support Worker.
3. Ensure all hospitals and primary care settings achieve dementia friendly status.
4. Ensure appropriate training in dementia.
5. Support carers and family of people with dementia.
6. Prevent the over-use and inappropriate use of antipsychotics, and support people with prescriptions.
7. Meet the challenges of living with dementia in rural Wales.
8. Support people living with dementia right to the end of life.
9. Ensure that dementia services meet the needs of Welsh language speakers.
10. Ensure that dementia services meet the needs of Wales’ BAME, LGBT+, and other minority communities.

You can read our entire letter to the Cabinet Secretary for Health at: alzheimers.org.uk/walesstrategy

Yours sincerely,

Age Cymru; Alzheimer’s Society; BASW Cymru; British Geriatric Society; Carers Trust Wales; Care & Repair Cymru; Chartered Society of Physiotherapy; Marie Curie; Royal College of Nursing; Royal College of Psychiatrists; Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists; Royal College of Physicians; Royal Pharmaceutical Society; Welsh Language Commissioner.