Agenda item

Mrs T Dean was present for this item as Chairman of the Select Committee together with Mr J Kirby and Mr L Christie)

(1)          Mrs Dean placed on record the thanks of the Select Committee to Mrs S

 Frampton for the assistance she had given to the Committee during the course of its work.  Mrs Dean highlighted a number of key areas to the report, including the need for early diagnosis, better training for staff from both the public and private sector who provide treatment and care for dementia patients.  There also needed to be improved access to professional help, including legal and financial      advice when seeking for example power of attorney.

There was a need for suffers and their carers to be more involved in the planning of their treatment and for there to be more awareness to the fact that increasingly dementia was being diagnosed more in younger people.  Mrs Dean also spoke of ‘memory cafes’ and the value that they can have in helping sufferers of dementia.

(2)    Mr Kirby also spoke of the need for there to be better and earlier diagnosis and about the important part memory cafes can play in the treatment and support given to dementia suffers. Mr Kirby said steps needed to be taken to address the stigma which can be attached to dementia and spoke of the importance of all agencies, including the police receiving adequate training. He also spoke of the importance of dementia being treated on a multi-agency basis and the importance therefore of those bodies developing strong links and joint strategies. Mr Christie echoed the views of Mrs Dean and Mr Kirby. He also spoke of the need for dementia patients to have continuity of treatment and the believed the role and importance of memory cafes was such there ought to be one in each district.

(3)       During the course of discussion Mr Gibbens said he thanked the Select Committee for its wide ranging and comprehensive report which would be debated more fully at the County Council meeting on 15 December. In the meantime he said he welcomed the proposal to establish a cross party group of members to work through the detail of the recommendations. He said it was important to move beyond dementia being seen only as solely a mental health issue and the care and treatment of sufferers needed to have the involvement of a range of partners in both the public and voluntary sectors.  Other views were that more work needed to be done with GPs in order to improve the chances of early diagnosis, the number of cases of dementia was rising and therefore there needed to be more thought and planning as to what future resources would be needed to meet that rise. The Gateways across the county could be used to provide better information for both patients and carers and could possibly be a location for a memory café.      

(4)       Following this discussion Cabinet placed on record its thanks to the Select Committee for its report which would be debated at the County Council meeting on 15 December 2012.