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Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 September 2021

Thursday, 9 September 2021

Questions (1037)

Richard O'Donoghue

Question:

1037. Deputy Richard O'Donoghue asked the Minister for Health the position regarding support for persons and families dealing with dementia given the lack of understanding of the illness and the effects it has on many families; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41632/21]

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Written answers

The National Dementia Strategy aims to improve how we provide care for people with dementia, their families and their carers. Implementation of this strategy is a key commitment in the Programme for Government. The National Dementia Office, within the HSE, oversees implementation of the strategy.

A range of health and social care services are provided to people with dementia, their families and carers under the National Dementia Strategy. These initiatives include:

- The Dementia Understand Together in Communities Campaign, a public awareness campaign aimed at inspiring people from all sections of society to stand together with the 500,000 Irish people whose families have been affected by dementia;

- Dementia specific homecare packages, which aim to support people living with dementia who have high support needs;

- The dementia advisor service, which provides a highly responsive and individualised information and signposting service for people living with dementia and their families;

- A network of 25 Memory Technology Resource Rooms for people who would like to know more about the products and devices which can help manage memory difficulties;

- In-home day care services for people who are unable to access day services due to the public health restrictions;

- The Intellectual disability memory service, a centre of excellence in pro-active dementia assessment and diagnosis for people with an intellectual disability.

- The National Dementia Diagnostic Services in Dublin, which are being expanded this year to include a new regional memory clinic in Cork along with four additional memory assessment support services in Mayo, Sligo, Waterford and Wexford.

Finally, in Budget 2021, the Government allocated €12.9 million for a number of dementia specific measures. This allocation comprised of €7m for an additional 250,000 hours of home support for people living with dementia, €0.9m to expand the dementia advisor service operated by the Alzheimer Society of Ireland and €5m for further implementation of the National Dementia Strategy.

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