Dementia care standards in England criticised
January 14, 2010
MARK HENNESSY, London Editor
HOSPITAL STAFF in England are badly trained to deal with dementia patients, and British government plans to improve care over the next five years must be “urgently” reviewed, a top audit body warned yesterday.
Dementia affects more than half a million people in England alone, and the numbers will double over the next 30 years, while the costs of coping with them will rise from £15 billion (€17 billion) to nearly £35 billion in just 15 years, the National Audit Office (NAO) said.
Expressing concerns about training standards for doctors, nurses and carers, the NAO said society’s lack of interest in dementia care is affecting “the morale and motivation” of those caring for patients daily.
“Almost every health professional comes into contact with patients who have dementia, yet there is no required basic training in how to understand and support them,” said the audit body, in a report issued yesterday.
Care is affected because staff turnover is too high in nursing and residential homes: up to a quarter quit their jobs in nursing homes every year, while one in five leaves residential homes.
The department of health produced an “ambitious and comprehensive strategy” in 2007, but it has not addressed it as urgently as efforts to improve cancer and heart disease treatments.
Though 21 million English people know someone with dementia, public awareness is poor: 28 per cent wrongly believe it is “a natural part of ageing” and 22 per cent also wrongly believed that there is no way to reduce the risk of suffering from it.
“The stigma, amongst health and social care staff as well as the public, contributes to a negativity about dementia resembling the attitude to cancer in the 1950s.
Abridged
SOURCE: The Irish Times
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