More support for people with dementia and their carers

More support for people with dementia and their carers will be available in communities but establishing services in new bases has been questioned. 

Health chiefs are setting up Dementia Hubs in the five Gwent local authority areas with the base for Monmouthshire at the Abergavenny Wellbeing Centre. 

Amanda Whent, lead dementia nurse for Gwent’s Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, told Monmouthshire County Councillors the hubs are intended to pull together all the information on the different support groups and services that are available. 

She said: “The dementia hub should be a one stop shop to say what is going on in your area and to signpost and direct you to services.” 

She said the hubs are part of a six month pilot and while it had originally intended to establish a hub in Chepstow, Monmouth and Abergavenny a lack of funding meant those plans were “scaled back” to just the Abergavenny base, which is run by the Alzheimer’s Society following a tender exercise. 

Caldicot Cross councillor Jackie Strong said she wasn’t aware of support from the health board for dementia in the Severnside area or how willing volunteers in the area could get involved. 

The Labour member also said the board should consider making use of existing community buildings and said: “I think you are trying to reinvent the wheel.” 

She added: “They would be better centrally located in Caldicot library for instance. I’m worried there is a lot of duplication but lots of people don’t know what services are out there.” 

Jennifer Winslade, the board’s director of nursing, said: “We need to understand the feedback you’ve given us. An active library may be a different way of doing this.” 

She said the board would need to understand “what each community needs”. 

The nurses were giving a briefing to the council’s public services committee on care for people with dementia in communities including support for families. 

The NHS body produces an annual report to judge its progress against the all-Wales dementia care pathway for the regional partnership that along with the health service includes local authorities and Dementia Friendly communities programme. 

It works in schools, to bring different age groups together, with community groups, in care homes and hospitals as well as Usk and Prescoed prisons to support those with dementia. 

A dementia connector post is also being established to help provide support and assistance to patients and their families, which Ms Whent said would be at any time. 

She said: “The point of diagnosis can be overwhelming, it can be too much information but we will make people aware support is there and at the time they need it.” 

A “listening campaign” to get the views of communities on dementia services, and to identify gaps in care, has also been piloted in Newport which helped inform the Dementia Community Plan for Newport and the principles of that excercise will now be used, and adapted, for other areas of Gwent. 

The five dementia hubs are at Cwmbran Library, Ebbw Vale Institute, the Riverfront Theatre in Newport, Caerphilly Library and the Wellbeing Information Centre in Abergavenny.