Dementia

Lots of fuss this morning about this.

Apparently all us GPs are to receive training to recognise dementia much, much earlier. Once we've diagnosed it we will send people with it to memory clinics for treatment.

Right.

Well, I've been diagnosing dementia for years.

I've been referring for years.

Support services for people with early disease are rudimentary. Most people with early disease are able to live completely independently.

The disease is characterised by an inevitable and inorexable decline. There is no treatment that works and even the treatments which are said to slow the progression of the disease have recently been said by the government to be too expensive. Just talking about the possibility of having it scares most people rigid. The vast majority of those with it die of something else well before the dementia itself gets severe enough to carry them off.

Which rather leaves me wondering what the point of this announcement is.

Oh wait: Parliament is in recess and Christmas is coming up...