More specialist dementia care is being called for in the South West.
A new report from Tiverton and Minehead’s MP, Rachel Gilmour, highlights a significant dementia diagnosis gap and calls for a named care navigator, a local support hub, and additional Admiral Nurses to address growing care needs in the region.
The Tiverton and Minehead Dementia Report, released by Ms Gilmour’s office, identifies serious challenges including low diagnosis rates, limited access to high-quality community support in rural areas, and increasing strain on both paid and unpaid carers.
Ms Gilmour said: "I have a disproportionately large number of elderly constituents, and a disproportionate number of those find themselves in very difficult circumstances.
"Those with dementia, or who fear they might have it, are some of the most vulnerable of all.
"I commissioned this report because I wanted to shine a light on what is happening to my constituents, and to tell government exactly what they need."
NHS Digital data shows that just 849 people are on the dementia register in Tiverton and Minehead, though Alzheimer's Research UK estimates the true figure could be as high as 1,877 - suggesting a diagnosis rate of only 45 per cent.
This rate is far below the national ambition of two-thirds and lags behind both the South West average (61.8 per cent) and the wider Somerset figure (56.1 per cent).
The report points to barriers including rural transport and workforce shortages, which make it difficult for people to access post-diagnostic support and care.
One carer described the experience as "doing a nursing role without any training."
The report’s main recommendations include appointing a named dementia care navigator, establishing a local dementia hub for advice and support, and commissioning more Admiral Nurses and specialist dementia training in Tiverton and Minehead.
Professor Sube Banerjee, an old age psychiatrist and professor of dementia at the University of Nottingham, said: "Nationally, about two-thirds of people with dementia receive that diagnosis, and that's much too low.
"In Somerset, that number is more like 50 per cent, so that suggests Somerset services are not as good, functioning as effectively as in other places.
"But the numbers in this particular constituency were even lower than that, about 45 per cent, and that suggests that there really are problems in inequity of diagnostic services, and we know that rural and coastal areas have particular difficulties in this."
He supported the idea of community hubs and care navigators as effective strategies.
Professor Banerjee said: "The establishment of community hubs that would enable people with dementia to understand what's available, for that to be made available for them, and to support carers, is absolutely the right way to go.
"The provision of a named navigator, a named support for people post-diagnostically, is, I think, tremendously important.
"People live with dementia for up to seven years, and their needs change throughout that time.
"You need to know who to go to to ask for help."
Ms Gilmour has applied to introduce a Ten Minute Rule Bill on dementia specialist support, aiming to bring legislative action to the report’s recommendations.
Fiona Bladon, carers’ ambassador and chair of trustees at Unite Carers in Mid Devon, said: "I learned about dementia the hard way, when my mother-in-law came to live with us with Alzheimer's disease, and shortly afterwards, my father with vascular dementia.
"That is why I'm fighting alongside people like Rachel Gilmour to make life easier for those on the dementia journey."
Ms Gilmour dedicated the report to her mother, who lives with dementia, and expressed her determination to see real change.
The Office of Ms Gilmour will also write to Dementia UK to help raise awareness and will ask NHS Somerset and NHS Devon to assess the case for commissioning more Admiral Nurses in the constituency.
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