Health and Social Care professionals

Although almost every health professional will come into contact with patients that have Dementia, there is no required basic training on how to understand, help and treat them. Social Care professionals do have access to some training, and selective Universities such as Hope University in Liverpool, now offer a degree in Social Care which covers Dementia as part of the syllabus.

It is estimated that the number of people diagnosed with Dementia in the U.K. is approximately 750,000. With this in mind, it is very important that everyone involved with providing care to someone with Dementia seek to undertake a comprehensive programme of Dementia related training.

Figures for 2010 have estimated that there are approximately 35.6 million people worldwide who have been diagnosed with Dementia, costing the global economy somewhere in the region of £388 billion. Future estimates expect the number of people diagnosed worldwide to double by 2030 (reaching 65.7 million people), and treble by 2050 (reaching 115.4 million).

With estimates such as these, you can see how important it is to recognise the growing severity of the situation, and for health and social care professionals to possess the relative skills and knowledge to treat someone who has Dementia with the necessary level of care and understanding.