Leave No One Behind: Improving pathways to information, assessment, and management of dementia for older people from minoritised backgrounds in Wales

An estimated 25,000 people of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BME) origins
live with dementia in the UK – a number which is expected to increase
sevenfold by 2051. People from many minoritised communities experience
dementia in a markedly different way to their white British counterparts. The
fight for a myriad of effective information pathways, quick diagnosis, and
person-centred care systems that address the health as well as psychosocial
support requirements of those with dementia has long been a research,
practice and policy priority. We need to build our understanding of how best to
improve the lives of people living with dementia and their families and carers.
Understanding the ways BME people living with dementia and their carers seek
information, and how they experience the assessment process, and live with
dementia is a critical step. In the coming decades the UK’s older demographic
will increasingly become more diverse and thus the need for dementia services
to improve how people access their screening and assessment services, to
enhance their models of early intervention and to develop meaningful
messaging and information platforms will become that more pressing.
Moreover, the pandemic has raised the spectre of health inequalities and the
disproportionate impact of dementia on population groups – not least those
from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds where the existing evidence base
is patchy and nascent. In order to (i) capture the accelerated interconnections
across sectors, (ii) draw on the impact of the overhaul of existing systems and
process, that cross many boundaries, and (iii) move forward, rooted in the
learning and innovation that is taking place in ways that address social and
health care issues exacerbated by the pandemic crisis, such work is needed.
Given the Welsh Government commitment to deliver a new 10-year dementia
action plan in the coming two years, not to gather necessary evidence may lead
to the further cementing of health and social inequalities in the field of
dementia. This work needs to be done now. In Wales, the work to be done must
be noted, alongside the need for work in this area to accelerate.
This report provides a (i) scoping overview of the evidence base (ii) summaries
of recently completed scoping studies and engagement work undertaken by
Diverse Cymru and (iii) proposed research programme to be taken forward.