Who do we know in Buckinghamshire with Down’s syndrome or dementia?

Abstract

Dementia is a major health issue which can affect older people with learning disabilities, particularly those with Down’s syndrome. Within the Bucks Community Learning Disability Teams (CLDTs), we wanted to clarify how many people were known to us with dementia and/or Down’s syndrome. We surveyed the CLDT staff to gather this data and asked for views about what we offer post-diagnosis for people with dementia in order to think about how we could improve our service. We identified 15 people with a confirmed diagnosis of dementia and 109 people with Down’s syndrome. We hope this information will now form a database, which can be used to improve practice by targeting assessment/interventions to those identified.