Change of Focus: From Dementia Diagnosis Rates to Post-Diagnostic Support for People with Dementia (NHS England)

Summary

Alistair Burns, National Clinical Director for Dementia, and Peter Bagshaw, Clinical Lead for Dementia at the South West Strategic Clinical Network, discuss the changing emphases of current concerns regarding the recording and management of dementia in primary care.

A couple of interesting mnemonics / acronyms have come to light, for the perennially curious and people who like to collect these:

The Five Ps

The so-called “Five Ps” concern the advantages of investigating people with memory problems:

1. Discovering treatable emotional and Physical illness.
2. Installing Post diagnostic support for carers and families, with evidence that this can:
3. Prevent crises.
4. emPowering people with dementia and their carers.
5. Prevention of significant cognitive decline with interventions directed towards vascular risk factors.

The DEMENTIA Acronym

The acronym DEMENTIA has been contrived to help GPs guide their dementia reviews and care planning:

• D – Diagnosis review.
• E – Effective support for carers review.
• M – Medication review.
• E – Evaluate risk.
• N – New symptoms inquiry.
• T – Treatment of medical conditions.
• I – Individual issues.
• A – Advance care planning.

Full Text Link

Reference

A new dementia currency in primary care – Professor Alistair Burns and Dr Peter Bagshaw. London: NHS England, March 2^nd 2016.

These authors’ recommended further reading include:

Full Text Link

Reference

Barrett, E. [and] Burns, A. (2014). Dementia revealed. What primary care needs to know: a primer for general practice. Prepared in partnership by NHS England and Hardwick CCG with the support of the Department of Health and Royal College of General Practitioners. London: NHS England / RCGP, July 16^th 2014.

and:

Full Text Link

Reference

Dementia diagnosis and management: a brief pragmatic resource for general practitioners. London: NHS England, January 14^th 2015.

Dementia Case Finding Discussed on BBC Radio Four

A probing discussion on the dementia case finding debate was aired recently:

Full Text of Transcript / Audio Link

Reference

Dementia: What Do We Know? London: BBC Radio Four’s “File on Four” programme, February 23^rd 2016 [and] February 28^th 2016.

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