Dementia support: research into the experience of from patients in County Durham

In 2017, Healthwatch asked the public in County Durham what their priorities were for us to look at in 2018/19. There were six proposals to prioritise based on intelligence gathered from our signposting work and information provide by partner organisations. Investigating Access to Dementia Support Services was selected by the public as one of their top four priorities.

Healthwatch County Durham carried out a series of different engagement methods to gather views and experience of patients and staff, such as creating a survey which was used online, talking to people with dementia, their carers, and to organisations who support patients. They received 50 responses to their surveys, 16 were received from an online survey and 34 from a range of engagement activities.

Healthwatch had hoped to be able to feedback good practice by identifying any differences across the county in the referral processes, however at the conclusion of the project there were no clear variations in patient experience identified, despite a considerable amount of work being undertaken with stakeholders. The majority of the people who completed the survey were happy with the way in which they had been referred into services. Some of the key messages from patients generally were:

• Early diagnosis was important, for a significant number of patients it took over 4 weeks for a referral to other services
• Timely referral to, and advice about support networks helped patients, carers and families through difficult and challenging times.