Health and Education

Part of Debate on the Address – in the House of Commons at 1:49 pm on 11 December 2008.

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Photo of Alan Johnson Alan Johnson The Secretary of State for Health 1:49, 11 December 2008

The hon. Gentleman is, of course, absolutely right. We published our stroke strategy a year ago, in December 2007, and everyone involved, including the non-governmental organisations and the Stroke Association, is very pleased with the progress that has been made. The hon. Gentleman is quite right to mention dementia. It is an important issue, and only a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned in a speech that cancer had a stigma 20 years ago—people did not talk about cancer in polite society—and that that was now the case with dementia. Of course, no one made jokes about cancer, but people make light-hearted references to dementia, which has to stop.

Our dementia strategy, which will be published shortly, will concentrate on raising awareness, removing the stigma and ensuring a better quality of care and much earlier diagnosis. A dementia sufferer usually goes to a GP about seven or eight times before dementia is diagnosed, so a lot needs to be done there as well. We published our strategy on end-of-life care four months ago. Once again, it entails working with the voluntary sector and NGOs to develop the ability to convince people that, if they choose to die at home, support services are available to them and their families to ensure that they will be okay. That is the biggest single reason why families are sometimes reluctant to allow their loved ones to come home.