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Six months ago, our Fair Dementia Campaign was launched as a way to bring focus to the inequalities facing people living with advanced dementia when it comes to access to healthcare. Since then, over 2,000 of you have signed up to support our campaign as we continue to call for change. We’ve put together an update on what has happened within our Fair Dementia Care Campaign so far, and what you can expect in the future.
What happened after we launched the report
In January, the Fair Dementia Care Commission which was established by Alzheimer Scotland, launched the Fair Dementia Care for People with Advanced Dementia report. Following the launch, Alzheimer Scotland started the Fair Dementia Care Campaign which set out to achieve fair care for people with advanced dementia by working with the Scottish Government. Alzheimer Scotland started to raise awareness of the lack of equality of access to healthcare for people with advanced dementia.
We’ve aimed to reach people far and wide to bring attention to the need for change. Over thirty local papers across Scotland carried this Letter to the Editor from Alzheimer Scotland’s Director of Policy and Research, highlighting the key issues raised in the Fair Dementia Care report.
The findings of the Fair Dementia Care Commission were covered by, among others, the Sunday Post, Third Force News, Herald and STV.
Following on from Alzheimer Scotland’s meetings with the health spokespeople from different parties in the Scottish Parliament, the convener of the Scottish Parliament Cross Party Group on Dementia, Richard Lyle MSP, submitted a motion in the Scottish Parliament about the Fair Dementia Care report and the call for equal access to free healthcare for people with advanced dementia.
On Tuesday 4 June, marking Dementia Awareness Week, the Scottish Parliament debated Fair Dementia Care. MSPs from all parties spoke out to support our campaign. If you want to read all the speeches, you can do so by clicking here, or if you want to watch what happened, you can watch the debate here.
In the end, a massive 53 MSPs supported the Fair Dementia Care motion. This would not have happened without the efforts of our campaign supporters asking their MSPs to back the campaign.
What happens next
Alzheimer Scotland is committed to making sure the rights and voices of people living with dementia are heard and recognised. Our next steps within the Fair Dementia Campaign will see us speak with the 53 supporting MSPs, encouraging them to follow up on their support for the campaign in Parliament by committing to ensuring that their party supports Fair Dementia Care in their next manifesto. We can help them to take this forward by showing them the support that exists across the country for Fair Dementia Care.
Whether you’ve shared the campaign on social media, discussed it with your family or colleagues, or downloaded and read the Fair Dementia Care report, you are helping to address one of the key campaign issues – that a better understanding is needed about advanced dementia, and the challenges a lack of definition causes.
Do you have friends, family or colleagues who haven’t yet signed up to support Fair Dementia Care? Ask them to sign up by clicking here and we can show the strength of the movement for Fair Dementia Care.