Black and minority ethnic communities and dementia: Where are we now?

http://www.better-health.org.uk/briefings/black-and-minority-ethnic-communities-and-dementia-where-are-we-now

There is a worldwide recognition that dementia is one of the key public health issues for the 21st century.  It absorbs a significant and rapidly growing amount of expenditure on health and social care and presents a profound psychological burden for carers. However, despite substantial increases in the number of older black and minority ethnic people in the UK, very little is known about the prevalence of dementia in these communities.  Indeed for some ethnic groups, such as Black African-Caribbeans, there is evidence that these communities are at higher levels of risk than the indigenous white population, yet policy guidance on understanding the issues for black and minority ethnic older people has not found its way into practice when implementing the UK National Dementia Strategy.  Furthermore, limited action at the policy level may be matched by limited understanding of dementia within black and minority ethnic communities, with poor understanding of available services and stigma surrounding the illness.

In a new briefing paper, produced as part of the Race Equality Foundation’s Better Health collection, David Trustwell argues that a more targeted approach for black and minority ethnic people with dementia and their carers is essential.  Highlighting an innovative pathway approach to living well with dementia, Trustwell suggests using ‘community dementia navigators’, befrienders who provide support to people living with dementia and help them to find their way around the health and social care system.  Furthermore, by providing improved training in cultural competency amongst professionals across the care pathway, people with dementia from black and minority ethnic communities can be supported throughout their diagnosis and treatment. He argues that such an approach would help to tackle rising costs by reducing the rate of transfers to more expensive residential care, and the number of costly unscheduled hospital admissions or transfers to residential care for complex, late presenting black and minority ethnic patients who have been living with undiagnosed dementia needs.

The briefing paper was launched by the Race Equality Foundation at a joint event, being held with Age UK on 27 November 2013.
 

Notes

1)      “Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Communities and Dementia – where are we now?” is the 30th paper in the Race Equality Foundation’s Better Health briefing collection.  The full collection is available to download for free http://www.better-health.org.uk/briefings

2)      The Race Equality Foundation is a national charity that promotes race equality in social support (what families and friends do for each other) and public services (what 'workers' do with people who need support).

We do this by:

exploring what is known about discrimination and disadvantage
developing evidenced-based better practice to promote equality
disseminating better practice through educational activities, conferences, written material and websites.

Find out more about our work at http://www.raceequalityfoundation.org.uk/

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Kat Clayton

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http://www.raceequalityfoundation.org.uk

 

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