Early diagnosis campaign

Prime Minister's Challenge on Dementia: Improving diagnosis rates

As part of the Prime Minister's Challenge on Dementia, the Department of Health has been working on a number of projects to improve diagnosis rates. Alzheimer's Society welcomes these developments, and is also working to see similar improvements in Wales and Northern Ireland.

Dementia Diagnosis resource pack

The NHS Commissioning Board have developed a resource pack for commissioners and GPs to help more people get diagnosed. It identifies 10 key steps to improve diagnosis and next steps once someone has been diagnosed. This will be issued by the Department of Health soon.

Dementia Prevalence calculator

This will help local areas improve diagnosis by providing a guide to working out local dementia prevalence. This will enables local areas to set a local ambition to improve their dementia diagnosis rates.

NHS Health Checks

From April 2013, all local authorities will be required as part of the NHS Healthcheck programme to give information to people aged 65 - 74 to raise their awareness of dementia and the availability of memory services.

Provision of appropriate social care support

Clinical Commissioning Groups will be expected to work with their social care and wider local authority partners to ensure that the right care services are in place.

Provision of memory clinics

The Department of Health aims to increase the number of memory clinics across the country, and the number of services accredited by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Dementia CQUIN

The dementia CQUIN encourages best practice by financially rewarding hospitals that find, assess and refer people with dementia.

Dementia Friendly Hospitals

Tools and support for Trusts are being developed to encourage every hospital to sign up to becoming dementia friendly. Currently 65 Trusts have signed up to become dementia friendly.