Why Are We Still Failing People with Dementia? The Crisis No One’s Fixing

Let’s be blunt: dementia care is in crisis — and it’s not new. The system has been creaking for years, but now it’s breaking. And still, it’s barely making headlines.  Across the country, people living with dementia are falling through the cracks. Promises are made. Strategies are launched. Pilot projects pop up, then disappear. But for too many families, the reality is a lonely slog of trying to navigate patchy services, long waits, and care they simply can’t afford or access.

This is not just a “challenge for an ageing population.” It’s a political failure. One that should shame us all. Every year thousands of people are diagnosed with dementia. For many, that diagnosis comes with a leaflet, a number to call, and then… silence.  In Scotland we have the Post-Diagnostic Support Guarantee — a policy meant to ensure everyone newly diagnosed gets a year of support.  It is barely being delivered. According to Alzheimer Scotland, less than half of people entitled to it actually receive it.  Carers are exhausted. Families are making impossible decisions. Some people end up in hospital not because they’re ill — but because there's nowhere else for them to go.

The cost of this failure throughout the UK is measured not just in human suffering, but in money. People with dementia are disproportionately stuck in hospital beds, using emergency services, and pushed into crisis. It’s the most expensive, least dignified way to “care” for someone.

It’s also a false economy. If we invested in proper home support, community care, and small-scale, local services — we’d save lives and money. But political will has been missing for too long.

It would be really good to have at last a real, fully-funded National Dementia Strategy — with clear timelines, proper workforce planning, and accountability. Not just words, but action that shows up in people’s lives.  But it also needs power at the local level. Because care doesn’t happen in a minister’s speech — it happens in living rooms, by neighbours, by unpaid carers, and yes, by women who do the work that holds communities together. We should be funding community-led care co-ops, training up local carers, and giving families the support they need to keep their loved ones at home if they want to.

We can’t cure dementia yet. But we can care better, and we can build a system that doesn’t abandon people once they forget our name.

We just have to choose to do it.