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

The national dementia strategy was launched in December 2014 and seeks to increase awareness and understanding of dementia, ensure timely diagnosis and intervention, and provide enhanced community-based supports and services. The strategy was developed 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 number of people with dementia is expected to almost treble by 2046.

A mid-term review of the implementation of the strategy was published on 23 May. It indicates that half of the strategy's 35 actions have been substantially progressed, with preliminary work done on the other half. The mid-term review also contains an action plan for the work of the National Dementia Office over the next year.

A number of priority actions in the strategy were co-funded by the HSE and The Atlantic Philanthropies through the €27.5 million national dementia strategy implementation programme. These include the establishment of the National Dementia Office within the HSE, upskilling and training of GPs and primary care teams, an awareness campaign and intensive home care packages. Actions within the strategy that did not receive funding through the national dementia strategy implementation programme are also being addressed. These projects include the development of a diagnostic and post-diagnostic support pathway, the roll-out of a national network of memory technology resource rooms, the mapping of dementia-specific community-based services, and the development of a job specification for the role of key worker. Funding for some of these actions has been secured through the Dormant Accounts Fund, with the Department securing €2.28 million through the 2016 and 2017 action plans.

A large-scale external evaluation of the strategy is being conducted, the results of which will be available during the first quarter of 2019.

The Department is committed to the full implementation of the national dementia strategy and will continue to work with the National Dementia Office and stakeholders to progress the actions contained in the strategy. Until satisfactory work has been completed on actions contained in the current strategy, and because the external evaluation of the strategy has not concluded, it would not be appropriate to begin work on a new strategy.

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