‘There has never been a better time to have dementia’

One of Britain’s leading research psychiatrists says there has never been a better time to have dementia because the condition has never before had such a high priority for diagnosis and management and there has never been so much that can be done.

Sube Banerjee MBE, Professor of Dementia at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS), a partnership between the universities of Brighton and Sussex, said: “It has been a real achievement to drive dementia from being one of the least thought about conditions in health and social care to being the very top priority.”

Professor Banerjee will explain why there is a better future for those with dementia in his inaugural lecture ‘Dementia: Reasons to be cheerful’ next week (26 Feb) at the school (see video vimeo.com/87089779)

Diagnosis rates are still too low, with only 44 per cent of people with dementia in the UK ever knowing they have it, and even when the diagnosis is made it tends to be too late, ha said.

Prof Banjeree added: “It is usually at a time of crisis, when it is too late to prevent harm, and too late to allow people to make their own choices. And then there are things that go wrong in terms of service provision for both those who have dementia and their families.”

At the Centre for Dementia Studies, run in collaboration with the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, where Professor Banerjee is a consultant psychiatrist, his team looks at all aspects of quality of life and quality of care for dementia to define and test better models of provision.

He said: “The brilliant news is that there are answers to each set of problems. We have done work to measure quality of life in dementia; we need to know what helps people and what doesn’t.”

His team developed the DEMQOL system and used it to evaluate his service model to improve early intervention, defining what good means in terms of quality of service.

“We have shown that such services are both clinically-effective and cost-effective.”

Prof Banerjee’s team has also identified some harmful outcomes for patients through the use of anti-psychotic drugs for behavioural disturbance in dementia.

Prof Banerjee believes there is a better future for those with dementia.

“We can develop services for early intervention and ensure that all who need to be diagnosed are diagnosed and this is already happening with the introduction of memory services around the world,” he added.

Professor Banerjee led the delivery of the National Dementia Strategy for England at the Department of Health and was awarded an MBE for his services to dementia in June 2013.

His inaugural lecture will be held on Wednesday, 26 February, at 6.30pm at the Chowen lecture theatre, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex campus, BN1 9PX. Places can be booked at www.brighton.ac.uk/events

By Ceirney Eddie