GHA unveils dementia strategy and urges community response

The Gibraltar Health Authority will outline plans for a National Dementia Committee at a board meeting today, as it revealed details of the scale of the illness locally and urged a community-wide response.

When it launched a new screening programme last year, the GHA was detecting two new cases of dementia a week, according to GHA documents.

The meeting this afternoon coincides with World Alzheimer’s Day, a day dedicated to raising awareness for Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Today’s agenda includes the Gibraltar Dementia Strategy which aims to achieve earlier accurate diagnosis, more effective care, aid dementia sufferers living at home, and provide greater cooperation with voluntary organisations and service users.

The 22-page document details how, as of May last year, there were over 370 dementia patients locally.

It was noted that at the time there was an upward trend in dementia diagnosis.

“This at the current trend is increasing on average of two new patients identified each week,” the document read.

Although the trend is likely to have eased off after the start of the screening programme – full year statistics have not yet been released – the figure underlines the need for a strategy to tackle an illness that is increasingly affecting ageing communities around the globe, including here.

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