Meeting of the Parliament 01 March 2023 [Draft]
I take this opportunity to highlight the growing need to improve support for those with dementia. Alzheimer Scotland advises that, worldwide, the number of adults living with dementia is on course to nearly triple to 153 million by 2050. There are around 90,000 people with dementia in Scotland, and it is estimated that that figure will increase by 50 per cent over the next 15 years.
I put on record my appreciation of the work of Alzheimer’s Scotland, including the work that it has done with Age Scotland in the about dementia forum, and I praise the support that it has given to my constituents through the Clydebank and Bearsden dementia resource centres. I also thank the staff and volunteers of Carers of West Dunbartonshire and Carers Link East Dunbartonshire for providing an outstanding level of support to carers in my constituency.
It is no surprise that most individuals who replied to the consultation were people who are caring or have cared for someone with dementia. Of course, dementia is having a disproportionate impact on women, because they are predominantly the carers, so we must make sure that their needs are also fully recognised in the new dementia strategy.
From my time as convener of the West Dunbartonshire health and social care partnership, I know how important it is to involve those who are impacted by dementia in the design of support and services to meet their needs. That is why I welcome the approach that the Scottish Government is taking to design the new dementia strategy. It will work with people with lived experience, so that the voices of people with dementia, and of their families and carers, will shape the new strategy. The responses to the consultation need detailed consideration, but we can already see a range of issues to be addressed by the new strategy. Those include the need to change how we talk about dementia.