The number of people living with dementia from an ethnic minority background is expected to double by 2026 in England. Currently, people from ethnic minority communities often face delays in dementia diagnosis, barriers to services and there is insufficient culturally competent dementia care available. Working in partnership with Alzheimer Europe and the Royal College of Psychiatry, NHS England (NHSE) has published new guidance and launched a new free e-learning module aiming to improve care for people living with dementia from an ethnic minority background.
NHSE hopes these new resources will help raise awareness of the challenges people from ethnic minority communities face when accessing dementia care and help narrow the health inequalities gap. The launch coincides with Dementia Action Week 2023, taking place from 15 to 23 May.
This new set of resources includes:
• The new NHSE and Alzheimer Europe guide on intercultural dementia care – for health and care professionals: https://www.alzheimer-europe.org/sites/default/files/2023-05/intercultural-dementia-care-guide.pdf
• A new NHSE and Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) e-learning module – for health and care professionals: https://elearninghub.rcpsych.ac.uk/products/NHSE_Dementia
• Two new culturally competent activity booklets for use in care settings; one tailored for South Asian communities and one tailored to Black Caribbean/African communities – for health and care professionals
• A new leaflet designed for ethnic minority communities – for Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) and faith organisations.
These will be of interest, mainly, to dementia health and care professionals, VCSE organisations supporting people from ethnic minority communities and to people living with dementia/caring for someone with dementia from an ethnic minority background.
Jean Georges, Executive Director, Alzheimer Europe said:
“Alzheimer Europe is delighted and proud to have partnered with NHS England on this new resource. This is great recognition of our work on intercultural dementia care and of our 2020 guide on this topic, which served as the foundation of the new guide for NHS England. It is great that the NHS feels this is such an important guide and that they will be using it to help improve care in England, for people living with dementia from an ethnic minority background.”