Dementia services “not delivering value for
money”
Summary
Dementia is a term for a range of progressive, terminal
organic brain diseases, including Alzheimer’s.
Some 560,000 people in
England are estimated to have dementia, with a steeply rising trend expected
over the coming years. Some 476,000 people are unpaid carers of people with
dementia. Direct costs to the NHS and social care are currently at least £3.3
billion a year, but the overall annual economic burden is estimated at £14.3
billion.
This Report
‘Improving
Services and Support for People with Dementia’ (HC 604) examines what
health and social care services are available for people with dementia and
their unpaid carers in England and whether they are providing effective and
good quality support.
Until 2005 the Department of Health attached
little priority to dementia, and progress was hampered by a lack of good
quality data, by stigma, and by the low level of political and national focus
on older people’s mental health.
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How does it affect
me?
If you work with dementia or care for people with dementia, this
affects you.
The NAO conclude that services are not currently delivering
value for money to taxpayers or people with dementia and their families.
Whilst health and social care services are spending significantly on
dementia, spending is late - too few people are being diagnosed or being
diagnosed early enough. Early interventions that are known to be
cost-effective, and which would improve quality of life, are not being made
widely available.
Services in the community, care homes and at the end
of life are not delivering consistently or cost-effectively against the
objective of supporting people to live independently as long as possible in the
place of their choosing.
The rapid ageing of the population means costs
will rise and services are likely to become increasingly inconsistent and
unsustainable without redesign.
Recommendations cover:
- Improving diagnosis and early intervention
- Improving management of
services
- Gearing the system to respond to the major challenges of
dementia in the future.
Read more about
the work of the NAO.
Find out more about
dementia
on the NHS website.