A new “long read” from the King’s Fund looks at the treatment of Dementia and asks: Dementia is where cancer was 50 years ago: how we can use cancer as a blueprint for improving dementia care?
There was a time when people were reluctant to even say the word ‘cancer’. The euphemism ’the big C’ reminds us of a time when much of both the public and the medical community regarded many cancers as a death sentence.
Where cancer was once highly stigmatised and characterised by significant variations in care, for many types of cancer there are now well organised pathways to deliver effective treatment and support in a timely manner, often with the ability to cure or significantly extend life. The 10-year survival rate for people diagnosed with cancer has doubled since the 1970s.
While cancer remains a major cause of ill health, and mortality still claims too many lives and there is significant work needed to bring our approach in the UK in line with the best performing nations, this remains a remarkable transformation. We need to see the same happen now with dementia – and at an even faster pace.
