Agenda item

The Strategic Director, Adult Social Care submits a report that updates the Commission on the Dementia Programme.  The Commission will also receive a power point presentation relating to the programme.

Members are recommended to note the work programme and provide feedback.

Please note that an amended report with the completed financial, legal, climate change and equality implications has now been added to the agenda.

The Strategic Director, Adult Social Care submitted a report that updated the Commission on the Dementia Programme. As part of the update, a presentation was also shown, a copy of which is attached to the back of the minutes.

The Lead Commissioner (Dementia) presented the update and talked about the City Action Plan for 2016/17 and the Dementia Strategy 2017 – 2020. The work on the revised strategy was slightly behind schedule because of capacity issues, but hopefully a draft report would be brought to the Commission later on in the year.

The meeting heard that they were slightly behind in recruiting as many dementia friends as they had hoped, and Members were urged to undertake the training (which could be done online) if possible.  A Member suggested that it might be worth contacting people who worked in hair salons, as they were well known for their skills in talking to and listening to their clients. The Lead Commissioner suggested that everyone could take opportunities to talk to people in places such as hair salons, post offices and shops, about becoming a dementia friend. 

Funding had been made available to make improvements to city council buildings to make them more dementia friendly.  Ten bids had been received for work to buildings which included the Town Hall and the Abbey Pumping Station. The funding could be used, for example, to improve signposting to make it easier for people with dementia to get around the building, or by making the décor dementia friendly by using a strong contrast of colours.

The meeting heard that the 92% diagnostic rate for dementia in Leicester was one of the highest rates in the country. It was acknowledged that Leicester was doing very well in relation to diagnosis, but the Deputy City Mayor commented that there would be a considerable challenge in the future to sustain this. There were still some communities where there was a stigma attached to dementia. He added that it was important to continue to raise awareness.

There was some discussion relating to the Herbert Protocol which had been developed by the West Yorkshire Constabulary. Through this protocol, certain vulnerable people (such as those with dementia) would have a two page document of information about themselves including a photograph. If they went missing, that document would be immediately available to the police, saving valuable time. The Chair suggested that Leicester should adopt this policy and draw up a two page history as soon as someone was diagnosed with dementia.

The Chair asked about dementia friendly cities and the Lead Commissioner explained that achieving a dementia friendly city was challenging because of the size of the task, so actions were achieved through the Dementia Action Alliance (DAA).  Leicester was close to achieving dementia friendly status. As well as improvements being made to city buildings, services had been commissioned and trained staff would be more patient with those people living with dementia.  The meeting heard that Leicester museums were doing a lot of work to improve the experience for people with dementia and the Highcross Shopping Centre was one of the first dementia friendly shopping centres in the country.

A Member questioned whether any of the Leicester sporting clubs had been approached to make improvements for people with dementia and the Lead Commissioner responded that they had tried the various sporting organisations but so far had not had much success. 

A Member commented that some people were frightened to go to their G.P. in case they were diagnosed with dementia. She questioned whether printed, rather than electronic information could be used to raise awareness. The Deputy City Mayor responded that the use of technology for finding information was empowering but acknowledged that some people needed to be reached by other means. Digital versions could be very easily updated, but if printed copies were needed, it would be more effective to print those as and when required, rather than print a large number of leaflets which could be out of date before many of them were read.

The Chair drew the discussion to a close and thanked the Lead Commission and officers for the report and presentation.

AGREED:

                   that the report and presentation be noted.