Residents across the Isle of Wight are being offered the chance to join health and social care professionals at an event to help improve life for those living with dementia on the Island.
The event, which will take place at the Lakeside Park Hotel, Wootton on Tuesday 15th October from 13:00 until 16:30, will enable those taking part to share their views on current services and help contribute to a new strategy for improving services for those living with dementia.
Figures released nationally indicate that one in three people aged over 65 will have dementia by the time they die and as life expectancy increases more and more people will be living with the condition.
With an increasingly older population on the Island, this is an issue taking centre stage in the concerns of the Island’s Health & Wellbeing Board and the Clinical Commissioning Group – the group of GPs with overall responsibility for commissioning health services on the Island.
Efforts to improve services under the current Joint Commissioning Dementia Strategy launched in 2009 have showed a steady progress on the Island. However, with changes to health and social care services and increased awareness and understanding of the predicted demands on services in the future – together with new Government directives around improvements to awareness, earlier diagnosis and intervention and a higher quality of care – there is a need to revisit the strategy.
Dr Michelle Legg, Clinical Lead for Dementia on the Island said:
“As organisations we have made a commitment to ensuring – through the My Life, a Full Life programme – that older residents living in our community can experience good coordinated care and support to help them manage long-term conditions.
“We want to put that commitment into practice by bringing together professionals and residents in our community to help assess the support we currently provide and ensure that our future strategy is fit for purpose and can be sustained by those involved to enable residents living with dementia to remain healthy and well and to have an active participation in community life on the Island.”
Article continues below this advertisement
Those wanting to participate in the event are asked to register their attendance by Friday 11th October 2013 at www.iowdementiastrategy.eventbrite.co.uk so that we can try to accommodate everyone who would like to be involved.
