In his latest column for the Sevenoaks Chronicle, Michael has written about the challenge of dementia:<\/p>\n
Dementia is one of the biggest challenges facing our country.\u00a0 There are an estimated 850,000 sufferers in the UK.\u00a0 In Sevenoaks there are almost 600.\u00a0 Dementia costs the economy \u00a323 billion a year \u2013 more than the costs of cancer, heart disease or strokes.<\/em><\/p>\n It is a situation that is only going to become more serious.\u00a0 By 2040, the number of dementia sufferers is expected to double, with the costs predicted to treble.<\/em><\/p>\n I recently visited the Forget-me-not Memory Caf\u00e9 run by local volunteers.\u00a0 Despite only starting in October last year, it already attracts dozens of dementia sufferers and their carers.\u00a0 They come for conversation, companionship and cake.\u00a0 My first question for them was \u201cwhere did you go before this?\u201d\u00a0 The answer of course was \u201cnowhere\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n The Memory Caf\u00e9 is bringing people together, many of whom would otherwise rarely leave their own homes.\u00a0 The problem is that these initiatives are few and far between.<\/em><\/p>\n We are making some progress.\u00a0 Since 2010, a 50 percent increase in our dementia diagnosis rate has made it the highest in the world.\u00a0 Local NHS organisations tell me that they are working positively with the voluntary sector.\u00a0 Fewer people with dementia now have to travel long distances to unfamiliar surroundings for treatment.<\/em><\/p>\n But there is still more to do to achieve the ambitious goal set in last year\u2019s \u2018Challenge on Dementia 2020\u2019 for the UK to be the best country in the world for dementia care and support for sufferers, their carers and their families.<\/em><\/p>\n For too many people, there is still \u201cnowhere\u201d.\u00a0 But with initiatives like the Memory Caf\u00e9, we know how to start fighting the challenge of dementia.\u00a0 The priority now is to make sure we do it.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In his latest column for the Sevenoaks Chronicle, Michael has written about the challenge of dementia: Dementia is one of the biggest challenges facing our country.\u00a0 There are an estimated 850,000 sufferers in the UK.\u00a0 In Sevenoaks there are almost 600.\u00a0 Dementia costs the economy \u00a323 billion a year \u2013 more than the costs of … Continue reading “Column: Conversation, Companionship and Cake – All Part of Our Fight Against Dementia”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[464,470,28],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1190"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1191,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190\/revisions\/1191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}