British Journal of Social Work (2004) 34, 335-348
British Journal of Social Work 34/3 © BASW Trading Ltd 2004 all rights reserved
Early Recognition of and Responses to Dementia: Health Professionals’ Views of Social Services’ Role and Performance
Jill Manthorpe is Professor of Social Work and Co-Director of the Social Care Workforce Research Unit at King’s College London. Her research interests cover services for older people in particular and community care in general.
Dr Steve Iliffe is a general practitioner in north London and Reader in General Practice at the Royal Free and UCL Medical School. His research interests are in health and later life, professional education and the uses of information technology on clinical practice.
Alison Eden co-ordinated the design and implementation of the Action on Alzheimer’s educational project, from which this paper stems, whilst working for Excerpta Medica. She is currently the creative director of Fast4ward Communications.
Correspondence to Jill Manthorpe, Social Care Workforce Research Unit, King’s College London, 150 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NN, UK. E-mail: jill.manthorpe{at}kcl.ac.uk.
Summary
Increasing calls for early diagnosis of dementia look set to impact on social services. This article explores some of the issues, drawing on a series of multi-professional dementia workshops held in the UK. The workshops identified a series of questions that need to be addressed by social services in the areas of the drivers for early assessment, ensuing expectations, problems and advantages in involving social services, and the benefits of early diagnosis for individuals and their families. The article discusses the implications for social services in light of the data and notes a possible move to specialist services, within or without the social services sector. Tensions between current resource shortages and anticipated demands for services are identified. The difficulty of meeting low level needs while services are targeted on those with high levels of need presents a further challenge to service delivery.
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