Letter to the Chairman from Alzheimer
Scotland, Action on Dementia (28 April 1998)
Thank you for the opportunity to present evidence
to you and your colleagues on the needs of young chronically sick
people, especially those with early onset dementia.
I promised to let you have further information
on the numbers of younger people with dementia receiving services,
including respite care. The following figures refer to all people
with dementia and are not thought to be significantly different
for younger people with dementia.
Proportion of people with dementia known to
the services
78 per cent (Forth Valley)
— 45 per cent of this total are known
to the services because they are in institutional care.
— Half of those remaining in the community
are known to services.
— Those living in the community and
in receipt of services receive services at a low level, despite
their high level of need, i.e., 56 per cent need help at least
once a day, and 28 per cent have critical interval needs (intervention
needed more than once a day at unpredictable or very frequent
(less than two hour intervals). Yet the survey indicates that
42 per cent of the sample received no home help service during
a 17 to 28 day period and only 17 per cent received a daily visit.
Over 70 per cent received no day care. This is a clear indication
of the poor level of support provided to those in highest need
and the consequent high level of burden on carers.
Source: Gordon (1997).[2]
Respite Care
A study[3]
commissioned by the Scottish Office found that respite care services
for people with dementia and their carers are very patchy and
often inappropriate.
Only one in five people with dementia and their
carers receive one work's respite a year.
Sixty six per cent of short-stay care for people
with dementia is in hospital. This service is under threat as
long-stay hospitals close.
In answer to one of the Committee's questions,
I told you about the specialist welfare benefits service that
we provide in Glasgow. This service is provided by a project co-ordinator
with administrative support. The specialist nature of the project
is our willingness to visit people with dementia in their own
homes to undertake benefits checks, provide assistance with filling-in
application forms and ability to do this with a trained member
of staff who understands the needs of people with dementia. The
financial value of the service can be seen form the following
figures.
|
| Number of referrals |
One-off benefits | Annual value of recurrent benefits
| Total |
| | £
| £ | £ |
|
| 1995-96 | 193 | 20,932
| 199,229 | 220,161 |
| 1996-97 | 99 | 15,701
| 283,827 | 299,528 |
|
When your committee has had time to consider all of the evidence
that you have received, I hope that you will consider recommending
to the Scottish Office that a working group should be set up to
assess the specific needs of people with early onset dementia,
Huntington's disease and brain injury. It would be an exciting
approach that could challenge national and local policy makers
and service providing professionals to find creative solutions
to the needs of these three neglected groups of people in Scotland.
2
D Gordon and P Spicker (1997) Demography, needs and planning:
the challenge of a changing population in S Hunter (ed) Dementia:
Challenges and new Directions, Jessica Kingsley Publishers. D
Gordon and P Spicker (1997) Planning for the needs of people with
dementia, Avebury. Back
3
M Lindsay et al (1993). The Patchwork Quilt. A study of
respite care services in Scotland. A Report to the Social Work
Services Inspectorate in Scotland. Back
|
