Scottish Government publishes dementia strategy delivery plan

The Scottish Government introduced its new dementia strategy, Everyone’s story, in 2023 setting out a 10 year vision for dementia care in Scotland. This has today been followed by the first two-year delivery plan focusing on seven key deliverables for 2024-2026:

• A public facing campaign challenging the stigma associated with dementia, co-produced with the National Dementia Lived Experience Panel.
• Commission an independent evaluation of the Aberdeen Brain Health Service.
• Work with Public Health Scotland and partners to add to the data collected on diagnosis and post-diagnostic support (PDS).
• Establish a short-life working group to further develop understanding of the workforces supporting people living with dementia and identify gaps.
• An independent evaluation of PDS policy and delivery.
• Establish a Resilient Communities Programme Board to identify priorities and allocate funding to grassroots and community organisations.
• Establish a cross-governmental, cross-sector steering group to help shape Scottish Government’s role.

A monitoring and evaluation framework is being developed to track progress against short-term deliverables, and the longer-term commitments that will run through subsequent plans.

Ashley Campbell, policy and practice manager at CIH Scotland said:

“We welcome the Scottish Government’s focus on workforce development, and crucially, the recognition that this needs to extend beyond health and social care staff. All of our work on housing and dementia points to the fact that housing professionals have a key role in supporting people to live well with dementia. However, we also know that we need to raise awareness about dementia at all levels of the housing sector, and build better links with health and social care and post-diagnostic support. This delivery plan can help to re-focus attention on housing and dementia.”

Access a range of free resources on CIH Scotland’s housing and dementia.