Mark Ivory, new editor at the Journal of Dementia Care, spoke yesterday at the Margaret Butterworth Care Home Forum. This is a transcript of his talk. (2,712 words)

Good afternoon. So far as they can be separated, this is partly about policy and partly about politics. Where better to start than the Conservative party election manifesto? Pledges:

• Delivering on the Prime Minister’s Challenge, “making sure that everyone diagnosed with the condition gets a meaningful care plan to support them and their family.”

• UK will be world leaders in finding a cure for dementia by the target date of 2025.

• All companies with more than 250 employees would be required to allow them three days of volunteering time each year, something the Alzheimer’s Society welcomed in the context of the Dementia Friends initiative.

It’s the one about volunteering, considered more broadly, that I really want to focus on. In case we were under any illusions that the Tories had dropped the rhetoric of the Big Society, there was a section of the manifesto with the heading “Helping you build the Big Society”. “Volunteering is at a 10-year high,” it boasts, “with 3 million more adults giving their time last year than in 2010.” Continue reading →