Volume 7, Issue 6 (Suppl)
J Alzheimers Dis Parkinsonism, an open access journal
ISSN: 2161-0460
Dementia 2017
October 16-18, 2017
Page 22
Notes:
conference
series
.com
ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE & DEMENTIA
October 16-18, 2017 | Rome, Italy
9
th
International Conference on
David Truswell, J Alzheimers Dis Parkinsonism 2017, 7:6(Suppl)
DOI: 10.4172/2161-0460-C1-032
The Dementia alliance for Culture and Ethnicity: AUK Call to Action on responding to the impact
of Dementia in Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities
Statement of the Problem:
The number of people living with dementia in Black, Asian and Minority ethnic communities in
the UK is anticipated to increase seven fold in the period between 2011 and 2051. The age demography of migrant populations
in the UK indicates that significant burden of the impact of this will fall on the larger, longest settled migrant communities
(such as the Irish, African-Caribbean and South Asian). For the South Asian and African-Caribbean populations there is
known higher risk of vascular dementia than for other minority ethnic communities. This will present a significant and large
scale challenge for UK health services in urban areas.
Methodology &Theoretical Orientation:
The Dementia Alliance for Culture and Ethnicity (DACE) is a grass roots initiative
that grew out of a seminar held in the UK to explore the commonalities of experience of these communities. The seminar
participants formed the Alliance and developed a Call to Action. Findings: The Call to Action sets out commonalities in the
service experience and cultural stigma regarding dementia and recommends ways of responding to the challenges at the level
of policy development, service provision and public education.
Conclusion&Significance:
TheCall toActionhas nowbeen endorsed in theUK'sNational Health Service 2020 Implementation
Plan for Dementia.The Alliance believes that strategic and sustained investment inworking with community groups is necessary
to improve the understanding of dementia in Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities. It is only through this improved
understanding that people from these communities will come forward for earlier diagnosis and treatment and participate in
larger scale research studies. The presentation will highlight some examples of the work done by the Alliance to date.
Biography
David Truswell has worked in community based mental health services in the UK for over thirty years developing services for people with complex care needs and enduring
mental health problems in a career spanning the UK voluntary sector, local authority services, and the NHS. From 2009 - 2011 he was the Dementia Implementation Lead
for Commissioning Support for London, working with commissioners across London to improve dementia services. He is the Chair of the DementiaAlliance for Culture and
Ethnicity, a grassroots alliance of dementia organizations. He recently left the NHS to set up some fresh thinking
(somefreshthinking.com) an independent health sector
change management consultancy. He is also an independent writer on dementia support and services for Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.
david@somefreshthinking.comDavid Truswell
PLIAS Resettlement, UK