Dementia Support Line
Our Help and Hope Strategy
Our bold and ambitious five-year framework of priorities which underpins all the work we do at the Society.
A changing world
For over 40 years, Alzheimer’s Society has been a powerful force for change, improving the lives of people living with dementia.
Over those crucial years we’ve nurtured our relationships with people living with the disease, to better understand the complexities of delivering support within a challenging health and social care system.
We’ve spent time listening to people who deal with the disease every day, and amplifying those voices to campaign governments for change.
We have also been at the forefront of science and research, backing the world’s brightest minds and funding life-changing breakthroughs.
In 2021, we prepared ourselves for a world that was once again changing, and developed a framework of priorities to bring about the seismic change so desperately needed. We call this framework our Help and Hope Strategy.
A strategy for change
Our five-year Help and Hope Strategy will help us make the biggest impact to people’s lives. We’re the only dementia charity to tackle every aspect of dementia and give help for today and hope for the future.
We give vital support to help people manage their condition today. We also give hope for the future by funding new treatments that could improve people’s quality of life, while also being the loudest voice campaigning for a better life for people living with dementia.
Four priorities
Our priorities are clear: to increase dementia diagnosis rates and build the mechanisms to get people seamless support.
We want to make sure we can do that for more people by having deep levels of involvement, co-designing and co-producing with people with dementia across the entire organisation.
Bold ambitions
We want a world where dementia no longer devastates lives. To achieve this, we’re working to ensure that…
We’re creating a centre of excellence around diagnosis and, building on the work we’ve already done. We are deepening our understanding of what good diagnosis looks like and how that transitions into support.
We’re lobbying governments and health and social care providers to work towards better integrated services, so there’s less division between the charity sector and the health and social care sector. We will continue to innovate great dementia support and advice.
We’re working with health practitioners to improve referral into support for people with dementia, so no one is left alone after their diagnosis.
We’re funding some of the world’s brightest minds in research to find the breakthrough treatments and therapies people living with dementia desperately need.
We have a lot of work to do to ensure ground-breaking medical breakthroughs reach GP surgeries so people can access the treatments they need.
The cost of dementia to the UK is currently £34.7 billion a year, which works out at an average annual cost of £32,250 per person with dementia.
Currently too many people with dementia are having to fund the complete cost of their care and too much is expected of carers. We are working to fix the injustice of the care system.
We’re lobbying governments to take dementia seriously so that the voices of people living with dementia are heard.
Reach more people – especially those who have the least ability to support themselves or each other, and the communities that rarely receive dementia support and experience the detrimental effects of health inequality.
Ensure more people get an accurate diagnosis faster and then received a seamless transition into effective ongoing support, including support from Alzheimer’s Society.
To make dementia the priority it should be by influencing local and national decision-makers, and increasing public awareness of the disease.
Increase our impact and strengthen our understanding of what makes the biggest difference to people living with dementia. We do this by listening to and amplifying the many diverse voices of those with lived experience of the disease.