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19.
February
2016.
CNWL produces handy guide on memory services for Black, Asian and Minority Ethni

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For immediate release

CNWL produces handy guide on memory services for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic users

AN 85-page booklet containing information about CNWL's Memory Services has been produced for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Communities.

The handy guide helps clinicians and support staff in CNWL Memory Clinics signpost people from these communities who are living with dementia and their families and carers to relevant information about dementia and community group resources in their area.

Produced by CNWL's Equality and Diversity Team and Interpreting Service, it also contains information on local demographics and working with interpreters in dementia care.

The publication comes following a report by The All Party Parliamentary Group on Dementia in 2014 that the number of people living with dementia amongst BME communities will increase seven-fold by 2051.

This is much higher than the proportional increase in number in the UK white majority population.

However, due to lack of knowledge about dementia and stigma in these communities it is more likely that people living with dementia from these communities do not present to Memory Clinics for diagnosis in the early stages of the illness.

The booklet says that cultural and language issues for these communities will be important for the diagnostic process and post-diagnostic support plans, as CNWL serves some of the most ethnically diverse boroughs in the UK.

It finds that diagnosis and post diagnostic support should include access to the relevant culturally appropriate information and support services for both the person living with dementia and their family and carers.

CNWL Chief Executive Claire Murdoch said: "This is a great resource - informative and practical - so I know it will be used. That said I'm always interested to hear what people think of it and now this great piece of work has been completed we can build on it and that will help more, more easily."

Editors' notes

The booklet is attached

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
Stephenson House, 75 Hampstead Road, London NW1 2PL
Tel: 020 3214 5756 e-mail:
communications.cnwl@nhs.net