To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to support work to assist highly vulnerable people with dementia living in rural areas; and what assessment they have made of such work, including that of the Rural Dementia Friendly Task and Finish Group.
Answered on
21 December 2017
Improving the skills and dementia awareness of homecare staff can have a big impact on supporting people with dementia in rural areas; over 100,000 social care workers have received some form of dementia awareness training and this is continuing as part of the national implementation of the Care Certificate. By 2020, we expect social care providers to provide appropriate training on dementia to all other relevant staff.
The Department works closely with Alzheimer’s Society including through their Rural Dementia Friendly Task and Finish Group, and in establishing Dementia Friendly communities. The challenges of supporting people living in rural areas are raised frequently. The issues are kept under review by the sector partners of the Dementia Programme Board.