County Hall will continue to back a key multi-agency plan to ‘improve the lives of people living with dementia’ on the Isle of Wight, councillors have decided.
The adult social care, public health and housing needs committee approved the council’s continued support for and participation in the delivery of the Isle of Wight Dementia Strategy.
Launched in May 2022, the strategy was developed with partners including Carers Isle of Wight, the Isle of Wight NHS Trust, the Alzheimer Cafe Isle of Wight, Isle of Wight Age UK and Healthwatch Isle of Wight.
Initiatives completed since the strategy started include a dementia training programme for frontline staff, the opening of the Parklands Dementia Hub and community cafe in Cowes and a Dementia Outreach Team, according to a council report.
It says:
“The strategy was written following a long and varied programme of public consultation and engagement, ensuring that the voice of people with lived experience and their unpaid carers is at the heart of the strategy.
“The dementia strategy project of work, bringing together partners from across the system and different sectors, has received acknowledgement and praise nationally resulting in the project being chosen as a finalist at both the Health Service Journal and the Local Government Chronicle Awards.
“This strategy will have no direct financial budget implications but will seek to enable the existing Adult Social Care budget to be used more effectively to meet the needs of people with dementia. This will represent continued local investment for local people.”
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Laura Gaudion, the director of adult social care and housing needs at the Isle of Wight Council, told the chamber:
“For the Island we know dementia is a topic that brings forward lots of different feelings for lots of different people. We know that that feeling and the views of our community drove us to develop a whole Island-wide dementia strategy.
“The strategy itself is due to be revised and consultation with our communities is commencing in that area to ensure that we know how far we’ve travelled since the original strategy and how far we’ve got to go.
“What we know from those really early conversations are there are some really core successes that have been delivered as a result of the strategy and I’d point to Parklands, the dementia hub in Cowes, as one of those real key delivery areas that have impacted for local people.”
It is all very well having clubs and hubs. In our experience getting someone diagnosed with dementia is almost impossible. The care in our care facilities here on the island isn’t good enough.
The grey area between diagnosis and capacity is huge and needs addressing not only for those suffering but for their families as well. It tore us apart and we hope others won’t need to go through the awful pain we all did going forward.
Look at the diagnosis first then support people thereafter as it should be