The Chairs of the Bradford Dementia Strategy Group will submit Document “W” which provides an annual update report from the Bradford District Dementia Strategy Group focusing on the services provided in the District to support people with dementia and their carers post diagnosis.

Recommended –

(1)          That members comment on the update report.

(2)          That a further update report be provided in October 2017.

(Simon Baker – 01274 434073)

The Chairs of the Bradford Dementia Strategy Group submitted Document “W” which provided an annual update report from the Bradford District Dementia Strategy Group focusing on the services provided in the district to support people with dementia and their carers post diagnosis.

The Commissioning Manager provided a summary of the report and stated that Bradford was above the national benchmark (66%) for the diagnosis rate of the estimated number of people in our population with dementia; the district’s figure was approximately 70%.  He spoke of partnerships being forged across the district and an outlook to formulate and establish a key pathway for people with dementia. He highlighted that a Bradford based dementia project had gained national recognition for its work and that dementia services in the district had aspirations to do as much as they could for people living with dementia and their carers. 

A representative of Sharing Voices, a mental health organisation, highlighted the recognition to increase dementia awareness and support for South Asian communities.  He spoke of the partnership working with the Alzheimer’s Society to deliver dementia friendly sessions within BME communities.  A pilot project to work with faith leaders to create dialogue and awareness of dementia and encourage people to join the Dementia Action Alliance and organisations to become Dementia Friendly were highlighted; a robust Action Plan was in place to deliver this.

In response to Members’ questions, it was reported that:

·         The expected rise in the number of people with dementia was based on studies of the occurrences of dementia in certain communities within the district.  The rise was also expected due to people living longer.

·         Incentives were already in place for GPs to refer patients for dementia assessments.

A Member referred to the statistic of 25% of hospital beds being taken up by people with dementia as stated in the report.  She queried what work was being done to make hospitals more dementia friendly.  In response it was reported that all people over a certain age were screened for dementia.  Where people were known to have dementia an acute liaison service had been commissioned which provided expert psychiatric options to aid their care plan.  Care home liaison service targeted care homes to try and avoid hospital admissions where possible.

In response to a Member’s query about what work was being done to raise awareness of dementia amongst young people, the service manager for the Alzheimer's Society in Bradford stated that the Dementia Friendly Communities Programme had been funded by Public Health for four years and allowed his organisation to work with different Council departments and schools.  He spoke of the difficulties with rolling out sessions across all schools and the reliance on community leaders to encourage schools to buy into the delivery of dementia awareness sessions. Work carried out amongst schools was ad-hoc and he stated that if there was a systematic approach to get schools on board, he would be keen to utilise it. The Schools Forum was put forward as a suggestion.

The Chair suggested working with Patient Participation Groups to ensure all GP surgeries were dementia friendly.

Resolved –

That a further update report be provided in October 2017 which includes details of the post diagnosis pathway and an update on progress with the Dementia Friendly Communities programme.

ACTION: Strategic Director of Health and Wellbeing