Transcript: Prime Number Government Minister David Cameron’S Vox Communication On Dementia To The Dementia 2012 Conference
"We’re going to function relentlessly to improve lives, to assist hundreds of thousands of families to accept the struggle to dementia. David Cameron
"Every twenty-four hr menstruum charities together with volunteers undertake countless acts of kindness, similar running dementia cafes where people tin larn together together with larn support.
David Cameron
This is precisely the sort of thoughtfulness nosotros demand much, much to a greater extent than of.
So nosotros are issuing a telephone band to activity across society…
…for people to come upward frontwards together with do to a greater extent than to assist those amongst dementia".
Baca Juga
Introduction
There are some challenges inwards our national life that larn a lot of headlines, similar the debt crisis.
…one that steals lives together with tears at the hearts of families…
…but that relative to its impact is hardly acknowledged.
670,000 people inwards England are living amongst dementia today.
Each of these is someone similar Enid Russell.
Twenty years agone Enid was diagnosed amongst dementia.
She’d been a mother, childcare worker together with loving married adult woman to George for many years.
George says that “she’s yet the lovely Enid” he’s ever loved….
…but – for the past times iv years – she no longer recognises her husband.
It is almost impossible to imagine seeing the i y'all honey sideslip away from y'all piece physically, they’re yet there.
And every day, hundreds of thousands of these tragedies are playing out behind shut doors.
National fight-back
This is precisely a terrible disease.
And it is a scandal that nosotros every bit a province haven’t kept stride amongst it.
The score of diagnosis, agreement together with awareness of dementia is shockingly low.
It is every bit though we’ve been inwards collective denial.
Already a quarter of infirmary beds are occupied past times someone amongst dementia.
Already the total toll of the illness is around £19 billion inwards England…
…that is higher than the costs of cancer, pump illness or stroke.
And inwards less than x years, every bit nosotros all alive longer lives, the issue of people amongst dementia volition attain a million.
So my declaration today is that we’ve got to process this similar the national crisis it is.
We demand an all-out fight-back against this disease; i that cuts across society.
We did it amongst cancer inwards the 70s. With HIV inwards the 80s together with 90s.
We fought the stigma, stepped upward to the challenge together with made massive in-roads into fighting these killers.
Now we’ve got to do the same amongst dementia.
This is a personal priority of mine, together with it’s got an ambition to match.
That ambition: zip less than for Great Britain to live a basis leader inwards dementia enquiry together with care.
Misconceptions virtually dementia
Today I desire to speak virtually what together nosotros tin do to larn there.
But get-go I desire to say something virtually the misconceptions surrounding dementia…
…because when y'all aspect at what’s held this province dorsum from confronting this, y'all watch a pair of large myths standing inwards the way.
There’s the myth that dementia is precisely an inevitable portion of aging.
But it is non – it is caused past times diseases similar Alzheimer’s.
You tin aspect at scans of the encephalon together with watch the physical impact it is having.
This is non historic menstruum clouding the encephalon or forgetfulness.
It is a illness together with nosotros demand to process it every bit such.
Why has this held us back?
Because when something is shrouded inwards mystery, it tends to live taken less seriously, or it’s treated every bit inevitable.
That links to the 2nd myth: that “nothing tin live done”.
People oftentimes assume in that location are no drugs that tin help, no coping strategies that work, no lite on the horizon…
…so we’d meliorate precisely shove it nether the carpet every bit it’s also painful to contemplate.
But this does non do jurist to the swell strides that receive got been made.
There are points of lite together with hope.
There are medical developments.
There are many ways to brand life easier.
National Dementia Strategy
So our challenge is to struggle that ignorance together with increase understanding.
Above all, to recognise that nosotros tin do much, much to a greater extent than both to process dementia together with to brand life meliorate for those who receive got it, together with their families.
This is what our national dementia strategy is about.
We are ramping upward the score of ambition…
…going farther together with faster across iii areas.
First: making certain our wellness together with social tending systems are properly geared upward to bargain amongst this crisis.
Second: getting our whole social club involved inwards the fight; communities, charities together with businesses.
And third: radically stepping upward enquiry into cures together with treatments.
Diagnosis
Let’s get amongst the challenge inwards our populace services.
The explosion inwards dementia has been a massive daze to the organisation inwards our NHS.
Every twenty-four hr menstruum doctors, nurses together with wellness together with tending workers are doing a heroic job.
But there’s no doubtfulness we’ve got to do better, correct across the board.
That starts amongst meliorate diagnosis.
Today solely around xl per cent of those amongst dementia know they receive got it.
Can y'all imagine if these were cancer diagnosis rates?
There would live a national outcry.
And dementia should live treated inwards precisely the same way…
…because precisely similar most other diseases, it makes a existent departure if y'all spot it early.
You tin assist people alive independently for longer, fifty-fifty spot the brakes on their decline.
Now some mightiness say – that’s all really well, but the nature of this status makes it hard to diagnose.
Of class in that location are difficulties, but the evidence tells us nosotros could live doing far better.
In Belfast diagnosis is at almost seventy per cent.
Here inwards England we’ve got neighbouring areas amongst massively unlike rates…
…in Sheffield 57 per cent; inwards East Riding – less than lxxx miles away – it’s 29 per cent.
In the adjacent few years I desire to watch a dramatic increase inwards these rates inwards every portion of the country.
To assist accomplish that we’re doing a issue of things.
Next year, every local expanse inwards the NHS volition laid out a clear, potent ambition for meliorate diagnosis rates.
We’re going to run a major national awareness campaign…
…across TV, on our streets, inwards the press…
…telling people if they or their loved i is feeling worried virtually their retentivity together with then they should larn it checked out.
And on top of that, from the historic menstruum of 65, people are going to live made aware of retentivity clinics, of which in that location are hundreds circular the country.
At their park five-yearly wellness check, every bit good every bit when they unremarkably watch their GP, those at jeopardy volition live referred on – precisely every bit they would live amongst a pump problem.
Together amongst the Royal College of GPs we’re working to post a message to every surgical procedure together with clinic inwards the province that this is to live taken really seriously.
Hospital
We demand that same surge of awareness running through our hospitals.
For someone amongst dementia, infirmary tin live a terrifying place.
The curt term retentivity tends to travel first.
That agency the patient waking upward inwards a identify they don’t know.
They’re beingness examined past times strangers. They’re away from familiar things.
All this is incredibly distressing.
Worse – it tin accelerate their decline.
Shadia’s manful soul bring upward was admitted to infirmary amongst dementia.
Before arriving he was mobile, able to feed himself together with could speak easily.
While inwards infirmary he became bed-ridden, he was fed through a tube, together with then finally was unable to speak or displace together with passed away 8 months later.
This is a tragic story. But it isn’t an isolated one.
The phrase that comes upward fourth dimension together with over again that people come upward out of infirmary “a unlike person”.
So in that location are a pair of resolutions we’ve got to make.
We’ve got to brand really clear that for people amongst dementia, infirmary should live a lastly resort.
Our wellness reforms are going to assist accomplish that, past times putting to a greater extent than ability into the hands of clinicians.
Take the local MD working inwards Devon.
She knows in that location are a few elderly ladies living inwards the hamlet who receive got dementia.
She also knows that – every bit thus oftentimes happens – they mightiness forget to gulp plenty water, thus they larn dehydrated, larn urinary tract infections together with terminate upward inwards infirmary where they larn worse.
But i time she’s got the command over the budgets she’ll live inwards a meliorate spot to preclude that…
…to hire a local nurse to travel into their homes together with cheque they’re drinking plenty water.
This is what nosotros desire to a greater extent than of: to a greater extent than thoughtfulness, to a greater extent than community care, to a greater extent than independence.
But of class in that location volition live times when infirmary is the solely option.
That’s why the other resolution we’ve got to brand is that tending inwards hospitals together with tending homes must larn much, much better.
The most of import things inwards the NHS are non structures or systems.
They’re kindness. Care. Gentleness.
Nurses taking the fourth dimension to chat to people, reassure them, ease their distress.
Making certain they receive got plenty to swallow together with drink.
Every unmarried patient amongst dementia has the correct to live treated amongst that dignity together with respect.
The best hospitals are already doing this. The residual demand to grab up.
One of the ways we’ll brand that travel on is through getting the incentives right, together with rewarding hospitals for providing expert dementia care.
From adjacent calendar month – Apr 2012 – in that location volition live a £54 meg pot of funding on top of the normal tariff, to encourage hospitals to larn to grips amongst dementia.
In the get-go year, that coin – the so-called CQUIN payments – volition live in that location for those who assess over-75 year-olds admitted to infirmary to cheque for signs of dementia.
This isn’t some box-ticking practice – it’s virtually actively trying to pick upward people who may non realise they receive got dementia, thus that they tin live referred for diagnosis.
That’s the raising awareness stage.
Then from adjacent year, we’ll receive got the raising standards stage.
The CQUIN payments volition solely travel to those hospitals that demo they are actually stepping upward to the plate on the character of their dementia care.
That mightiness live proper dementia grooming for nurses…
…or dementia-friendly wards amongst clearer signs together with lights that are vivid plenty to brand things less disorientating.
This is what our NHS has got to be…
…an establishment that rewards excellence – that expects the really best – every bit though it were our ain woman bring upward or manful soul bring upward in that location inwards hospital.
Social tending together with carers
But without doubt, i of the biggest things we’ve got to larn correct inwards our populace services is social care.
The overwhelming electrical charge today is helplessness.
People given petty or no pick virtually the tending they larn at home.
In the black virtually tending homes.
And, of course, that existent worry of losing command of the finances – fifty-fifty losing the domicile you’ve worked thus hard for – inwards monastic enjoin to pay the tending fees.
On the fiscal point, nosotros know in that location are huge challenges.
We know people are suffering massive losses.
We are determined to do the correct affair past times these people…
…and when nosotros issue the Care together with Support white newspaper inwards the nigh future, nosotros volition live proverb to a greater extent than virtually the wider reforms that are needed.
But hither I desire to say what we’re doing to improve the character of care.
Put simply, our reforms are virtually ending the helplessness people feel.
Putting to a greater extent than ability inwards their hands – thus that precisely through the human activity of choosing; what tending they have, what domicile they remain inwards – they tin brand things better.
So for those who larn their tending at home, we’re rolling out personal budgets together with forthwith payments that spot people inwards the driving seat.
I know from experience how incredibly frustrating it is when some distant official is telling y'all the sort of tending parcel y'all need, where y'all should travel together with how it should live spent.
You call upward – hang on a infinitesimal – this is my family, my home, my life.
I know best what I need.
If it’s a unlike tending agency people desire – thus live it.
If it’s a specialised sort of therapy – they should pick out it.
We’re ending the nightmare of one-size-fits-all – together with this is happening quite fast.
The most recent figures demo almost 340,000 people were receiving their ain personal budgets at the terminate of March lastly year.
By Apr adjacent year, when personal budgets are available for everyone, that figure should receive got doubled.
This is a huge alter that is already putting people amongst dementia – together with their families – inwards control.
Another affair we’re doing to brand life a lot easier is joining upward the NHS together with social care.
So oftentimes nosotros remove heed how frustrating it is to give the same data over together with over again, or nurses doing i thing, tending workers another…
…when all people desire is a organisation that industrial plant to arrange them, non the other way round.
So this revolution inwards personal budgets is spreading to the NHS too.
We’re committed to offering them to 50,000 NHS continuing tending patients past times 2014, together with we’re going to proceed upward that momentum – thus to a greater extent than together with to a greater extent than people larn that tailored tending they deserve.
The vision is for wellness together with social tending working much to a greater extent than seamlessly…
…social workers together with GPs, nurses, tending assistants together with voluntary sector workers meeting around people to brand certain their needs are met.
And for carers, nosotros receive got done something else.
One of our really get-go acts inwards government, dorsum when the coalition was formed, was a novel break fund.
£400 meg to give these carers that breathing infinite that thus oftentimes they desperately need.
This is virtually recognising, pure together with simple, what an amazing affair these people do non precisely for their families, but for our country.
And for them – together with those they tending for – nosotros demand to spot to a greater extent than ability inwards their hands when it comes to tending homes too.
We demand a lot to a greater extent than data virtually what goes on.
Because when y'all call upward virtually it, it is quite ludicrous that y'all tin larn online together with bring out out to a greater extent than virtually the hotel you’re going to remain inwards for a calendar week than the tending domicile your bring upward mightiness alive inwards for the residual of their life.
So to alter that, 2 things are happening.
Ten of the most forward-thinking tending providers – similar Bupa together with Barchester Healthcare – receive got come upward together to laid out what expert dementia tending should aspect like….
… focusing on character of life for people amongst dementia, non precisely the character of care.
They’ve pledged to alive upward to these standards – together with that’s going to live a badge of excellence, applying gentle peer pressure level to all other tending homes.
But to give these standards existent bite, the other affair we’re doing is bringing inwards a whole novel era of transparency inwards the tending sector.
In the white newspaper we’re going to smoothen a lite on the character of care…
…in every tending domicile together with every domicile tending agency.
There’s going to live feedback from menage unit of measurement together with friends. Hard information.
We’ve seen how transparency tin transform populace services together with this is going to do the same for care.
Putting people inwards control. Forcing unlike providers to heighten their game. An open, honest pursuit of excellence.
Whole social club approach
So large novel changes are coming inwards across our populace services.
I wishing this could live plenty lonely – that nosotros could run into this challenge past times focussing the NHS on dementia.
But the truth is nosotros can’t.
Because dementia isn’t precisely virtually what happens inwards hospitals together with tending homes.
It’s virtually those amongst the status getting confused virtually endless PIN numbers together with passwords.
The carer almost breaking nether the strain of belongings downwards a project at the same fourth dimension every bit looking after Dad.
The stigma people have.
As Philip Clarke, who has early onslaught dementia has said: “When y'all larn diagnosed amongst Alzheimer’s of a abrupt y'all larn a non-person…
…I’ve been an RAF officeholder together with a academy lecturer together with of a abrupt the doctors are directing questions virtually me to my married adult woman every bit though I’m non inwards the room.”
All these are problems our populace services lonely can’t reach.
So second, nosotros demand to travel farther together with faster is inwards getting our whole social club involved inwards the fight.
Already expert things are happening.
Tesco has been working amongst the Alzheimer’s Society to run dementia road-shows.
HSBC are grooming upward staff to recognise the status together with brand banking a chip simpler accordingly.
Every twenty-four hr menstruum charities together with volunteers undertake countless acts of kindness, similar running dementia cafes where people tin larn together together with larn support.
This is precisely the sort of thoughtfulness nosotros demand much, much to a greater extent than of.
So nosotros are issuing a telephone band to activity across society…
…for people to come upward frontwards together with do to a greater extent than to assist those amongst dementia.
Today I tin denote that a whole charge of businesses receive got already pledged their back upward – from Saga together with Aviva to Lloyds, E:ON together with Waitrose.
And communities are responding too.
The Alzheimers’ Society is leading a displace of dementia-friendly cities together with towns across the country.
In Plymouth everyone from the Naval Base to the Raiders basketball game squad has joined forces.
Groups inwards York, Plymouth, Bradford, Sheffield, Leeds together with Liverpool receive got come upward together to do their bit.
All this is incredibly heartening – together with my message to everyone inwards this country…
…communities, businesses, individuals, charities, is that nosotros demand to watch much to a greater extent than of it.
Research
Together nosotros tin assist people alive amongst dignity together with alive well.
But the ultimate finish has got to live prevention together with cure.
That’s why going farther together with faster on medical enquiry is our 3rd large aim.
Too oftentimes the lack of a ‘wonder drug’ has led to defeatism, but huge advances receive got been made, amongst British scientists oftentimes leading the way.
After a hundred years of groping inwards the semi-dark, we’ve at nowadays got clear images of the brain.
…we receive got – thank y'all to enquiry led past times Great Britain – the clearest motion painting yet of the makeup of Alzheimer’s, opening the door to crucial handling development.
Our function on the early detection of dementia is world-leading.
We receive got novel ways to larn drugs forthwith to the affected cells…
…and many other exciting breakthroughs.
At Eli Lilly Great Britain they’re helping to accept some of the clearest ever images of a alive brain.
Just lastly calendar month nosotros heard the tidings that Aricept tin live effective inwards the afterward stages of dementia every bit good every bit the early ones.
And nosotros receive got something actually exciting going on inwards this province today – the Bio Bank.
Already, 500,000 people receive got volunteered to accept part.
That is one-half a meg people who receive got provided blood samples, are regularly getting their blood pressure, vital signs, fifty-fifty their eating habits monitored, thus nosotros tin bring together the dots together with watch how diseases similar dementia larn signalled actually early on.
We desire to purpose Bio-Bank to accept encephalon scans of upward to 100,000 people, allowing us to watch the earliest stages of progression of Alzheimer’s together with other diseases similar never before.
Indeed, inwards the history of mankind we’ve never had thus much data virtually what goes on inwards the brain.
There is promise – together with I desire Great Britain to live a basis leader inwards turning that promise into something real.
We’ve got the fantabulous universities, the globally-respected doctors, a truly national wellness service.
All this gives us swell advantages…
…but upward to now, nosotros haven’t made the most of them.
We currently pass over x times to a greater extent than on researching cancer than nosotros do dementia.
So today, I tin brand a large annunciation on funding.
Though nosotros are inwards a fourth dimension when coin is tight, this regime has made a bold together with of import decision…
…to to a greater extent than than double the amount nosotros pass on dementia research…
…from £26 meg at the terminate of the lastly Parliament, to over £66 meg at the terminate of this one.
Already we’ve got some of the world’s greatest enquiry scientists working hither together with amongst this boost nosotros desire to watch many to a greater extent than of them…
…attracted to this province inwards the noesis that nosotros are taking dementia seriously together with nosotros are putting our coin where our oral fissure is.
Another major affair we’re going to receive got is a force for to a greater extent than people to larn into clinical trials…
…more people getting that run a jeopardy to larn the really latest drugs.
Clinical trials receive got made a huge departure inwards the struggle against cancer – together with they tin do the same amongst dementia.
Our ambition is this: at to the lowest degree 10 per cent of people amongst dementia should live able to accept portion inwards clinical trials – upward around x times from today.
Yes, this is ambitious – but similar I say nosotros receive got got to be…
…and inwards the coming years I desire us to live working amongst countries across the world…
…collaborating on research, pooling the best talent, making this a global attempt to bring out novel treatments together with cures.
Conclusion
So inwards hospitals together with tending homes, inwards communities, businesses together with enquiry labs I desire a novel unloose energy to infuse this struggle against dementia.
But to brand certain this is a prolonged together with winning fight…
…not precisely a spasm of well-meaning action…
…we receive got done something else: prepare a dedicated Champion grouping for each strand of this strategy…
…to mobilise action, drive frontwards novel ideas together with to challenge together with cheque that all these actions I’ve spoken virtually larn done.
They’re headed past times leaders amongst existent experience inwards this field, from Dame Sally Davies to Angela Rippon together with Sir Iain Carruthers…
…and inwards half-dozen months they are going to study dorsum to me amongst progress.
Before this phonation communication I met them together with my message was clear: don’t stint on the ambition.
I desire to watch large ideas. Boldness.
And yeah – concord our feet to the flames to larn things done.
So though this is a painful subject, my message today is i of hope.
Increasingly people amongst dementia are beingness helped to alive fuller lives.
On the horizon are novel avenues for research.
And most importantly, in that location is that essential spirit of defiance that nosotros inwards this room share…
…that together we’re non going to shrug our shoulders or live defeated past times this…
…but instead we’re going to function relentlessly to improve lives, to assist hundreds of thousands of families…
…to accept the struggle to dementia.
http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/transcript-prime-ministers-speech-to-the-dementia-2012-conference/
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