I’d like to say – if people with dementia are getting your services things have come a long way and I have to acknowledge that.

The demographics of aging have been clear for a ling time. I am one of the ‘baby boomers’ who will be ‘caught in the trap’ of too many retired paople – too few working.

The funding given to Nursing homes is so low that elderly people have to hearded together to make ends meet. The money (in social care) that follows disturbed youngsters or people with learning difficulties, (to name but two groups) is much greater – and so they can have more intensive service user led care. But their numbers are 1. relatively small or 2. fairly stable. I am glad they have more appropriate levels of funding – I don’t want it removed – but elderly people are beening squeezed tomake the money go around.

Money is what it is all about and I’ve seen phychiatry and eldely services get sqeezed over 30 years while service expectation grows. Social care organizations dread a supermarket opening nearby – they often pay the till-satff more!

Now about the NHS – we can debate this at length sometime, but my assertion is this – it is not effective nor appropriate for long term care of most dementia suffers.

However in Social Care money here can more easily ‘follow the patient’ and not get caught up in the NHS wage bill or diverted to more ’sexy’ lobby sustained branches

I am not anti-NHS but I do think the time is coming when we should make it more focused on core clinical issues and other ways of providing many services services and alternative ways of funding them should be considered. No political party will even look at that possibilitiy.

He ho, a bit of rant that. But we may as well have real debate – the media are locked into political soundbites.

regards!

I deal with dementia patients every day. They are a staple part of my workload.

Two things frighten me, the projected forecasts for the massive increases in expected numbers of people with dementia in the coming decades and to see first hand how little most people know and understand about dementia.

I staggers me to hear carers or family members say ‘gran’s just losing her memory’ or ‘there’s nothing wrong with her, mum just doesn’t want to speak’. The average person on the street has such a poor understanding of the incidious and progressive nature of the disease and what the end point is likely going to be like when dementia reaches it’s end stages.

I’m not sure I agree when you say putting money in the health service will do little. Healthcare is driven by dollars. In Australia at least, many law and policy makers, most of them baby boomers themselves, have recognised that baby boomers are ageing and they want competent services and care available for them when their own ageing progresses.

I deal frequently with nursing home staff. I will routinely put pressure on them to ensure my patient and their resident gets appropriate follow up once they are discharged from hospital. Doesn’t always work, I’m sure, but it’s good advocacy on my patient’s behalf if anything.

Your name makes sense now. I have been trying to get to your blog to have a look but without a result. What’s the address?

I enjoy my work but I’m having lots of issues at the moment, mostly in dealing with the people I work with. I’m using my blog for a bit of ‘venting’ and therapy I guess!