Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Butler for the question. Dementia adviser services are provided at eight demonstrator sites across Ireland, supporting approximately 1,700 people with dementia and their carers and families in 14 counties. Dementia advisers offer a highly responsive and individualised information and signposting service.

The national dementia strategy was launched in December 2014 to meet the challenges faced by the 55,000 people living with dementia in Ireland and to provide services to meet growing demand in future years. The strategy contains 35 priority and additional actions to be undertaken by the HSE. As the Deputy will be aware, one of these actions is for the HSE to consider the provision of dementia advisers, based on the experience of demonstrator sites.

In order to fully capture the experience of demonstrator sites and inform the future development of this service, the HSE’s national dementia office has commissioned an external evaluation of the service. The evaluation, by University College Cork, UCC, began in November 2017 and is expected to be finalised by September 2018. Initial results indicate that a majority of people with dementia are satisfied with the information, advice, support and signposting provided by dementia advisers. The service has brought normality to their lives, provided understanding about dementia and given people with dementia the confidence to ask questions. The Department is awaiting the final evaluation report. The appointment of additional dementia advisers will be considered when the results of this evaluation are available.

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