East Riding JSNA

Health and Wellbeing Assessment in the East Riding

Dementia

Introduction and Headlines

  • Dementia prevalence has risen in the East Riding over the last decade. Increases in diagnosis rates were interrupted by the pandemic and work is ongoing to regain targets.
  • Raising awareness, promoting diagnosis and supporting people to live as well as possible with dementia in communities is vital for the East Riding, given the ageing population.

What is dementia?

According to the Alzheimer’s Society, dementia describes a set of symptoms that over time can affect memory, problem-solving, language and behaviour”. It is not a specific disease, but a result of various conditions that damage the brain, such as Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia, and frontotemporal dementia. Dementia is progressive, meaning it gets worse over time, and there is no cure. However, some treatments and interventions can help manage the symptoms and improve the quality of life of people with dementia and their carers.

The Need

Prevalence of Dementia across the East Riding has been rising steadily over the last decade. This is not unexpected with the area having an ageing population. The pandemic created additional challenges for people living with dementia and had an impact on accessing services. Work is ongoing across the system to improve diagnosis rates and ensure that people have access to appropriate support and information pre, during and post diagnosis. Voluntary Sector providers have recovered and increased the community support on offer for people living with dementia and their supporters. There is still an ongoing challenge with reaching out to isolated and rural communities to raise awareness.

Service Usage

Below is an interactive dashboard of dementia activity in the East Riding. The dashboards contain the diagnosis rate of dementia, grouped by primary care networks and general practices. In addition trend information of diagnosis rates overtime.

As yet, the dementia diagnosis rate has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels. The numbers estimated to be missing a diagnosis are calculated using a national prevalence model, based on the population aged 65 and over. Within the East Riding PCNs, the number of undiagnosed patients range from just over 40 to 118.

Insight

The direction for dementia in the county is upward, with those 65 and over with dementia increasing by near 10,000 people by 2040 and mere 17 years into the future. What is most stark is that this a 60% increase on the 2020 prevalence, applying that demand to the same services to support individuals would likely be overwhelming economically. Changing how we support people with this condition is a must.

The Alzheimer’s Society report (May 2023) “Improving access to a timely and accurate diagnosis of dementia in England, Wales and Northern Ireland” highlights the barriers people living with dementia face in accessing a timely and accurate dementia diagnosis, and advocates for practical changes and tangible solutions.

The report can be accessed by clicking this link: ‘Improving access to a timely and accurate diagnosis of dementia in England, Wales and Northern Ireland’,

Assets

Dementia Voices co-produced information

This section provides some co-produced information relating to dementia, click on any of the bullet points to access the information.

Resources

A&E access addiction Alcohol anti social Beverley Bridlington carers census children communication community safety Cost of Living crime Driffield Drugs East Riding Drugs Partnership engagement esteem Goole Health health and welbeing health and welbeing survey health inequalties Healthwatch Hull Humber Humber Violence Prevention Partnership (VPP) individual behaviours inequalities Inequality mental health NHS Services Parents Primary Care rural SEND services Special Educational Needs survey vulnerable well-being Wellbeing young carers youth club

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Tags: Adult, Individual behaviours