The National Dementia strategy in England

doi:10.1136/bmj.b931

Published 10 March 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b931
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b931

Editorials

The National Dementia strategy in England

A "smorgasbord" of evidence, economics, and obligation

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Public awareness of dementia is currently high, thanks to touchingpersonal accounts of the illness through individual experience,such as that of the writer Sir Terry Pratchett.¹ In the UnitedKingdom, dementia affects about 700 000 people at an estimatedcost of £17bn ( ${euro}$ 19bn; $24bn) a year.² The National Dementiastrategy for England—the product of extensive consultationwith an estimated funding of £150m—was launchedin February 2009.³ The main outputs are 17 recommendations coalescedaround three areas—raising awareness, diagnosing the diseaseearly on, and improving quality of care. The mantra of "a memoryclinic in every town" was one of the publicity sound bites,⁴but it raised legitimate questions about the evidence behindthe strategy. How many of the 17 recommendations are evidencebased? How many can be? The answer to both questions is—someof them.

The recommendations include a mix of long awaited priority settingand reaffirmation of . . . [Full text of this article]

Alistair Burns, professor of old age psychiatry¹, Philippe Robert, professor of psychiatry²

¹ University of Manchester Psychiatry Research Group, Manchester M13 9PL, ² Centre Mémoire de Ressources et de Recherche, CHU de Nice, Hôpital de Cimiez, 06000, Nice, France

Alistair.Burns@manchester.ac.uk

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Melis, R., Meeuwsen, E., Parker, S., Olde Rikkert, M. (2009). Are memory clinics effective? The odds are in favour of their benefit, but conclusive evidence is not yet available. JRSM 102: 456-457 [Full text]