Leading dementia organisations have joined forces to publish a new Dementia manifesto ahead of the General Election on 4th July. This collaboration from Alzheimer Scotland, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, Dementia UK and the UK Dementia Research Institute calls on the next Government to take action for the one in two of us who will be directly affected by dementia in our lifetime.

The full manifesto can be read and downloaded at https://www.dementiauk.org/dementia-coalition/?misc=media

Dementia is the leading cause of death in the UK and is set to become the defining health and social care challenge of our time. However, despite what many believe, dementia is not an inevitable part of ageing.

There are currently 982,000 people living with dementia in the UK, yet hundreds of thousands of people do not have a formal diagnosis, remaining in the dark about their condition and locked out of care, support and the treatment opportunities that research brings.

For those who have a diagnosis, there is no cure – the care and treatment options that exist are often disjointed, inaccessible and inadequate, for both those with the condition and for their families and carers.

Living with dementia can be exhausting and overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be this way. The manifesto draws on expertise from the range of organisations involved to demand a sustained, strategic approach to research funding, clear diagnosis targets and pathways and access to treatments and specialist care for people living with the condition:

• Prevention – including recommendations for a cross-governmental ‘Brain Health’ National Prevention Strategy to address the health and lifestyle factors that affect our risk of developing dementia
• Diagnosis – setting out the need for ambitious national diagnostic targets, a pilot of brain health clinics to deliver equitable high-quality services and the importance of investing to integrate promising research into accurate and deliverable diagnostic tools
• Support – calling for improved dementia support in primary care settings and extending the national dementia diagnosis targets to include young onset dementia, where symptoms develop under the age of 65
• Care – including a sustainable funding model for quality personalised care and an immediate review of the NHS continued healthcare funding application process to recognise the needs of people living with dementia
• Research – setting out the need to increase real-term spending on dementia research to accelerate new treatments, publish a long-term strategic approach to dementia research and promote and embed dementia research across the UK

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