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Having trouble deciding what to get your elderly relative for Christmas or for their birthday? The Department of Health (England) [DH] have a suggestion families are being urged to look out for the warning signs of dementia when they visit their elderly relatives. Christmas is of course a traditional time for visiting elderly relatives, so why not focus on more than the superficial pleasantries, the unwanted socks, cardigans and chocolate and talk with them instead, i.e. a proper conversation that will identify the signs of dementia:

Struggling to remember recent events
Problems following conversations
Forgetting the names of friends or objects
Repeating themselves
Problems with thinking or reasoning
Confusion in familiar places

In previous years the Alzheimers Society have reported considerable increases in calls to its helpline (43% in January 2011 compared to 2010), as families have identified their elderly relative is quite forgetful and becoming a risk to themselves, in one way or another. The DH media campaign tells the story of a man in the early stages of dementia, and his daughter, who feels she is losing her father. Relatives are encouraged to act on their concerns and seek help. Rather than face the possibility someone they love has dementia, relatives often wrongly put memory problems down to ‘senior moments’. The media campaign encourages relatives / friends / carers not to wait for the crisis and stresses that being diagnosed with dementia won’t make the condition worse, but leaving it untreated will.

So, GPs and memory clinics can, hopefully, expect an increase in referrals in 2012. But, memory services are not always available and growing financial pressures in the health and social care systems could mean cuts to the level of support that can be offered to dementia sufferers. There is, of course, no point in extending the time someone lives with the diagnosis of dementia if there is no or inadequate support for either them or their carers.

So, yet another call to arms from me encouraging you all to fight for dementia services and the continued support of dementia sufferers. We too must not wait for the crisis remember the H in NHS should stand for health promotion and managing long-term conditions, whereas currently it often seems that the term NHS stands for the National Crisis Intervention Service!

Finally, do share your expertise with your BGS colleagues by writing for the CME Journal. As always, I welcome feed-back from you as to whether the journal is helping you to fulfil your CME needs and with any suggestions for improvements.

Duncan R Forsyth