The Health Secretary Sajid Javid has announced a 10-year plan which will include a focus on “prevention” of dementia and committing £375 million into research on “neurodegenerative diseases” over the next five years.
Speaking at an Alzheimer’s Society’s conference in London, Mr Javid told delegates the government’s strategy would look at the same four themes behind its reforms in health and care called the four P’s: “Prevention, personalisation, performance and people”.
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle will be prominent in the ‘prevention’ part of the plan after it has been estimated as much as “40 per cent of dementia is potentially preventable.”
Mr Javid said: “High blood pressure, physical inactivity, alcohol, obesity and healthy eating all have a part to play. We now know that what’s good for the heart is also good for the brain.
“So, we’re going to be very ambitious on prevention, because I don’t accept that dementia is an inevitable part of ageing. It isn’t.
“I want our dementia strategy to be a 10-year plan, not just five. Because we can only get to grips with long-term challenges by thinking long-term.”
The conference coincides with Dementia Action Week which runs from 16-22 May and is Alzheimer’s Society’s biggest and longest running awareness campaign. This year’s theme is diagnosis.
For more information visit homecare.co.uk