Last December, a report entitled Brighter Futures (ANchor Association, 1995), which had been jointly commissioned by the Anchor Housing Association and Methodist Homes for the Aged, was launched at the Policy Services institute in London. It presented the results of research on health and social care provision for people with dementia living in residential homes, nursing homes and sheltered housing. The report's authors — Tom Kitwood, Sean Buckland and Tracy Petre — were from the bradford Dementia Group, a group which is becoming increasingly recognized for its innovative approaches to dementia care practice (Kitwood and Bredin, 1992; Kitwood and Benson, 1995). Indeed, the group's philosophical emphasis on personhood and individual wellbeing for people with dementia permeate the substance of this report, and give it a context wherein people with dementia are seen as being of value and integral to the fabric of local communities.