QUALITY STANDARDS

People with dementia will be provided with a specific diagnosis of your type of dementia, even if you have a rare form of dementia or unusual symptoms, are under 60 years of age or living in a care home. This may come from your GP, a Memory Assessment Service, or another specialist service provider such as Neurology. There may be a number of different health care specialities involved where diagnoses are complex.
Download a printable PDF version of the Understanding Different Types of Dementia infographic (PDF, 2M).
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When your GP receives notification of your dementia diagnosis, the practice will ensure that it is clearly recorded and entered onto the dementia register so that you can be easily identified as living with dementia.
 
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If you care for somebody who has received a diagnosis of dementia you are entitled to a carer's assessment by the local authority. They will assess your needs as a carer and work with you to understand if there is any provision or support which may help you.
 
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There are medications available which can help manage symptoms for some types of dementia: these are - donepezil, galantamine, rivastigmine and memantine.
After diagnosis, Memory Assessment Service staff, or your GP, will discuss the opportunity to commence dementia treatment with you, and the potential benefits and side effects are discussed in detail. This includes a discussion about when and how to administer the medication.
If you agree to commence dementia treatment there will be a planned follow-up appointment made to review this treatment, which could be with a memory assessment practitioner or your GP.
 
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A timely diagnosis of dementia is an important step in receiving the tailored support and treatment.  A timely diagnosis of dementia will enable people to lead full lives, engaged with their families and communities, for as long as possible. Early diagnosis gives people the best opportunity to plan for the future, and can help prevent crises.
There are also a growing number of treatments available that may slow the progression of the disease. That is why it’s so important that people don’t have to wait more than 6 weeks between their referral to a memory assessment service and receiving a diagnosis and developing and agreeing a care plan. Not only do delays add considerable costs to the NHS, waiting months for a diagnosis is unacceptable and detrimental to the long-term mental health of people living with dementia, and for their families and carers. We would not tolerate such a long wait for a cancer diagnosis, for example.
If you are diagnosed with dementia the Memory Assessment Service staff will explore with you if you want to know your diagnosis. They will offer you the opportunity to receive a letter with the results of your assessment and diagnosis detailed on it, as well as what the next steps would be. The Memory Assessment Service will offer you time to talk through your understanding of your diagnosis, what it means to you and who you are happy to share this diagnosis with, including your family members or others.
 
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After the Memory Assessment Service diagnoses you with dementia they will write to your GP to set out how they will work together to manage the care of your dementia and what their responsibilities will be.
Any medicine you have been prescribed for dementia will be continued and monitored by your GP.
 
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Arts and creative therapies are offered to people at early stages. Arts can stimulate sensory and motor activation, encourage social engagement, stimulate learning through creativity in a failure-free environment and help build cognitive reserve.
 
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