Sir Peter Fahy Chief Constable of Greater Manchester is calling for a dementia database
He believes a dementia database would help emergency services assist people who are either confused or agitated.
He said “It will enable the caring agencies to give a much better service when we receive a call and decide how to treat it,”
However this view is not met by the Alzheimer’s Society who commented saying “It could cause more problems than it solved”.
It is estimated there are 800,000 people in the UK who are suffering from some form of dementia, this is a figure set to rise to more than one million over the next decade.
Many people with dementia live in the community and not care homes.
Sir Peter said “If the police or ambulance service get a call to a particular address, they can phone the relatives to immediately get some background information”
Part of that mental health workload is related to people suffering from dementia.
“It’s a growing issue and sometimes it is because people suffering from dementia go missing, sometimes it’s because they have fallen at home and they are confused and we need to gain access on behalf of the ambulance service,” Sir Peter told BBC Five live.
“We have some people with dementia who are ringing us 30 times a day and clearly we have to take every one of those calls seriously.
