Vale of Glamorgan welcomes dementia action plan

The Vale of Glamorgan in Wales has welcomed the introduction of a national action plan to help the country cope with an anticipated rise in the number of dementia sufferers. The Welsh Assembly Government’s National Dementia Action Plan for Wales has now been put out for public consultation. It aims to provide support to individuals to enable them to remain independent, support communities to help their own residents with dementia and to improve access to services for everyone. Overall in Wales, there will an estimated 31% increase in the number of dementia sufferers by 2021 and the Vale of Glamorgan will be particularly affected because it has a large proportion of elderly people. Vale social services have welcomed the Action Plan as it will help them to cope with the increasing strain on their budget and services. However, they have commented that some areas of the Plan need further work, such as projects to enable more people to receive care in the community rather than in residential homes.

In other Welsh dementia news, scientists at Cardiff University have made a major breakthrough in the study of genes in Alzheimer’s disease. The University team have identified certain genes that are linked to the development of the disease and are now hoping to secure £5 million of funding that will enable them to carry out a study of 60,000 people to look for other genes linked to dementia. More details of the findings and proposed research can be found at the Wales Online website.