• Warner, James
• Samsi, Kritika
• Iliffe, Steve
• Goodman, Claire
• Gemski, Alan
• Watts, Sue
• Robinson, Louise
• Keady, John
• Bond, John
• Campbell, Sarah
• Abley, Clare
• Drennan, Vari
• Manthorpe, Jill

Abstract

Greater awareness of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias in the media is being accompanied by high profile campaigns to raise the awareness of dementia among the public by Alzheimer’s Societies around the world. Nonetheless, the increasing testing of cognition among older people is associated with fears about cognitive impairment and anxieties about obtaining a diagnosis of dementia. Two key documents depict this increasing interest from a UK perspective. The first is an authoritative investigation of the social and economic costs of the increases in the numbers of older people with cognitive impairment and dementia. The second is in the National Dementia Strategy in England, which has already led to public awareness campaigns to increase early recognition of memory problems or other symptoms suggestive of dementia, calls for increased skills in a broad range of professions, and the introduction of pilot developments, such as Dementia Advisors with liaison roles to help people with dementia to navigate through health and social care. As the Strategy notes, society needs to be prepared for this additional demand, not simply by being able to manage numbers, but by providing the information and advice people need prior to, during and after the diagnostic process. It is<br/>here, at this process of transition, the individual concerned will be acquiring the identity of a ‘person with dementia’ both in their own minds and in the views of others. Little is known about the experiences of people with memory problems accessing memory clinics in England or those of their family members. Previous research on this subject took place at a time when ‘anti-dementia medication’ was not available and public awareness of the possibility of dementia was less widespread.

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• laser emission spectroscopy