The Alzheimer’s Society is calling for personal budgets to be adapted to meet the needs of people with dementia.
In its recently published report 'Getting personal? Making personal budgets work for people with dementia', the society claims dementia sufferers and their carers are more likely to be satisfied with services they receive if they are on personal budgets.
Personalised budgets allow them to buy services such as support with cleaning, gardening and for holidays, which they may otherwise not have been able to afford.
The report highlights a number of barriers faced by individuals, including:
· an overly complex system that is intimidating for people with dementia and their carers
· lack of information and support for people who might take them up
· insufficient understanding of dementia among professionals, and limited awareness about the need to offer personal budgets
· underdeveloped local markets incapable of delivering a range of dementia services making it difficult to create a personalised package
· strict eligibility criteria which leads to many people with dementia not receiving social care until crisis point, when personal budgets may no longer be an option.
More than three quarters of people with dementia who receive social care support at home are not using direct payments or other personal budgets, despite government plans to roll them out to everyone using social care services.
