Dementia
The final item of business is a members' business debate on motion S3M-4852, in the name of Irene Oldfather, on a charter of rights for people with dementia in Scotland. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament welcomes the principle of a charter of rights for people with dementia, as proposed by the Cross-Party Group on Alzheimer's; believes that changing attitudes and practices that deny people with dementia their rights is a major challenge facing health and social care groups; notes the recent publication of a number of reports that have highlighted the inefficiencies in the quality of care for people with dementia in the community, in care homes and in long-term hospital care, including the Care Commission report, Better care, every step of the way, and the joint report by the Care Commission and Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland, Remember, I'm Still Me; notes the consultation undertaken over the summer to give people with dementia, their carers, health professionals and care home staff, among other stakeholders, an opportunity to express their views on the issues that they believe a charter should address; welcomes the commitment of Alzheimer Scotland to enable stakeholders to participate by organising roadshows in Irvine, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Inverness; acknowledges that the charter of rights is based on internationally agreed human rights and is intended to promote the respect, protection and fulfilment of all human rights of people with dementia and their carers, and therefore welcomes the idea of a charter as both an instrument for enabling culture change and as a tool to empower people with dementia.
Today is a momentous day because, in the spirit of partnership across Scotland, we are joining together to promote the rights of one of the most vulnerable groups in our society. I am delighted that, just before decision time, the Scottish Government indicated that it will support the principles of the charter. We have therefore also put political divisions aside.
Advancing the rights of people with dementia, who sometimes face extraordinary challenges and barriers in communicating their needs and wishes, is a just cause. We have too often come to the chamber to debate and discuss a plethora of system failures with respect to the quality and provision of care. We have had to point out the stigma and indignity that sufferers have experienced and had to consider how, in a modern Scotland, the care that is delivered to our elderly citizens can fall so far short, as reports such as "Remember, I'm still me" have demonstrated. Sometimes, we have reflected sadly on the emptiness and loneliness that come with a dementia diagnosis. Terry Pratchett movingly described feeling as though he was standing on a beach alone when the tide had gone out.
I am proud, on behalf of the cross-party group on Alzheimer's and dementia, to launch a charter for change—a charter that has been informed and influenced by sufferers and their carers, which says, "Behind this shell, even when I can't communicate with you, I am still here. Please remember that and treat me as a person." It is a charter that has, at its heart, the need to give people their dignity back and show them respect, and it takes dementia sufferers and their carers out of the shadows and into the light. Aptly, it is entitled "Dementia: Stepping out of the shadows".
I have been overwhelmed by the number of MSPs who have given their backing to the charter, along with the Scottish Government and the professional and voluntary organisations that have taken the time to publish briefings and confirm their support. Although I have the privilege of speaking about the charter in the chamber today, I am genuinely humbled by the commitment of those who are in the public gallery behind me, who have contributed to making the charter possible. In particular, I thank the members of the sub-group who drafted the charter and who gave of their time, their expertise and their professionalism above and beyond the call of duty. They include representatives from Alzheimer Scotland, the Equality and Human Rights Commission and CrossReach Scotland. I also appreciate the work of all members of the cross-party group, including the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland, the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care, the royal colleges and my fellow MSPs, who acted in an advisory capacity and commented on aspects of the charter from the initial idea through to the final draft. We owe them all a debt of gratitude.
I will say a few words about the charter. For too long, people with dementia have not had their rights respected. Could any other group in society be treated as they have been and just quietly accept it? Inappropriate medication, lack of physical exercise, poor nutrition, lack of privacy and social exclusion are just a few of the situations that were highlighted by sufferers and their carers during our consultation. Human rights have somehow eluded people with dementia and their rights have been abused. That is why the charter is necessary and is underpinned by the PANEL approach that has been endorsed by the United Nations.
P stands for participation. People with dementia and their carers must be able to participate in decisions that affect their lives and their care. A stands for accountability and holding people responsible for the respect, protection and fulfilment of human rights of people with dementia. N stands for non-discrimination and equality. We must deal with discrimination and remove stigma. Perhaps most important, E stands for empowerment. We must help dementia sufferers to know their rights and to know that they will be supported in claiming them. Finally, L stands for legality—the need to respect those people's rights in law.
It is one thing to put together a charter; we now have a duty to make it work—to audit it, monitor it and make it enforceable. That point was made particularly by the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Therefore, today is not the end of the process but the beginning. Now that we have the charter, we must take it out to the people. I would like to see a copy of the charter in every general practitioner surgery, carers forum, residential care home, community library, citizens advice bureau and MSP surgery. I look forward to social workers knowing the charter inside out, so that they—along with all of us—can assist in upholding the rights of people who have dementia and their carers. I want to see people throughout Scotland actively promoting those rights. Only when we see that culture change will we confine reports such as "Growing older and wiser together: A futures view on positive ageing" and "Remember, I'm still me" to the dustbin of history. To that end, I am delighted that Alzheimer Scotland intends to produce an explanatory leaflet that will provide detailed examples of how people can and should interpret their rights.
The support for the charter today has been overwhelming. I look forward to hearing the minister's comments in her summing up. The cross-party group would like the charter to be at the very heart of the new dementia strategy, and we have invited the minister to our next meeting to consider how we can take that matter forward. I end with a quotation from the Dementia Services Development Centre calendar:
"A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails."
Let us be that voice for people with dementia. Let us use the charter to sing that song. Let us send a clear and united message from the chamber today that we are with people who have dementia and that we will support them, defend them and be on their journey with them to ensure that they have the dignity and respect in old age that they deserve.
I congratulate Irene Oldfather and the cross-party group on Alzheimer's and dementia on securing the debate. The fact that we are having it shows how useful cross-party groups can be, especially when they do what they say on the tin and enable people from across the parties to work together. Irene Oldfather and the cross-party group deserve credit for that.
I hope that Irene Oldfather will forgive me for the fact that, because I was on paternity leave, I was unable to take part in the parliamentary debate on Alzheimer's that took place on 9 September—I offer her my apologies.
I do not see how anyone can disagree with the principle of a charter of rights for people with dementia. The motion states:
"the charter of rights is based on internationally agreed human rights and is intended to promote the respect, protection and fulfilment of all human rights of people with dementia and their carers".
It highlights exactly what this is all about and I do not see how anyone can disagree with it.
In June 2009, I was asked to open a conference that the Inverclyde Alzheimer's group held in Greenock. The aim of the conference was to highlight ways of living positively with dementia. In my speech, I noted that approximately 940 people in Inverclyde had dementia. However, the recent briefing from Alzheimer Scotland states that that figure has now risen to 1,155. That rise, over a short period of time, shows that this is a massive issue that we must all work to deal with.
Living positively with dementia does not mean warehousing people, which Cathy Jamieson highlighted during the debate in September. The conference that I attended highlighted what people can do to live positively with dementia, and how they can deal with the situation.
During the conference there was a role-play session, a question-and-answer session and workshops. The role-play session really took people into the zone—as they say in football—and enabled them to understand and tune in to what life is like for anyone who has a family member with dementia. It made me think of my grandmother, who had dementia and stayed with my family when I was in my early teens. I remember the stages that she went through and the strains and stresses that were placed on the family. The role-play session was extremely powerful, and the conference was a tremendous event in which to take part.
I have waffled quite a lot, so I will have to skip a few things that I had intended to say.
The debate and the announcement of the charter are timely for me because the Alzheimer's group in Greenock has invited me to visit its Alzheimer's cafe tomorrow. I am delighted that I will be able to go there and take along word of the full support, long-term commitment and cross-party consensus that the Scottish Parliament has displayed on this issue. That message is powerful.
I once again thank and commend Irene Oldfather and the cross-party group. I also commend the Scottish Government for the work it has been doing—I look forward to reading the strategy document that is due to be published next year.
I congratulate Irene Oldfather not only on securing the debate but on the power of work that she has put in with Alzheimer Scotland and others to develop the charter of rights.
We have already had a debate on dementia and considered some of the issues, but we should never forget that it is one of the most significant challenges that we face. When I was involved in the Timbury commission on dementia in 1980, it was thought that the number would be increasing quite significantly by the date we have now reached. We got it wrong—we underestimated the growth—and I suspect that we may be underestimating it again. Dementia is part of the mirage of health; once we deal with heart disease and perhaps cancer, dementia is the next big challenge, and it is a growing problem.
The charter is timely, but we should not forget that Scotland has a fairly proud record in the area, notwithstanding the fact that reports such as "Older and Wiser", which examined NHS premises and the treatment of those with dementia in such premises, and the joint care commission and Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland report "Remember, I'm still me", which examined care homes, reveal significant elements on which we need to make further progress. The charter will help in that regard.
It is 20 years—it will be its 21st anniversary next year—since the dementia centre at the University of Stirling, with which I have had some association over the years, was founded. The centre is a beacon of excellence in research and considering extremely practical measures and adaptations to support carers. It has just produced a booklet, which I recommend to those who are interested in the subject, called "10 Helpful Hints for Carers". That short leaflet does not simply contain anecdotes from carers; it is based on research that shows how carers can deal with difficult issues such as aggression, wandering and hallucinations. I suggest to the minister that when the charter is sent out to various places, a copy of the leaflet should go out to all general practitioners.
One of the things with which GPs have a problem is what the next step is: what they should do once they have made a diagnosis, which is not always easy. It is not clear how to tell carers how to manage or how to help the individual who will, in the early stages of dementia, be very aware of what is going on—they will not have reached the stage of not remembering anything.
Another report, from the Nuffield Council on Bioethics under Dr Tony Hope, has just been published. It does not say anything different from what the Alzheimer Scotland survey says, in terms of the things people want. We know that things such as ensuring that people are active, that they get out and about and that they keep their social connectiveness are all part of maintaining the quality of life for dementia sufferers.
I am particularly concerned about the management of nutrition and its importance in hospitals and other institutional settings. It is also important in community care support. Sometimes, if people do not eat, it is assumed that they are not hungry and the food is taken away, but they have forgotten and they need to be supported in that respect. The management of pain is another important issue.
Scotland has a proud record on such matters. Free personal care has been enormously important with this group and the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 has made a huge contribution. The charter is the next step that leads to a strategy—we have done a lot already, but we need to consider the next step. I commend the charter to members.
Irene Oldfather is going to become very embarrassed by the praise that is being heaped on her tonight. I have to say that, much as she is a cheery wee soul, she is looking even happier today than I have seen her looking for a long time. She is just beaming, which is a mark of the honesty and integrity with which she has been campaigning on dementia for so long. To have achieved another step forward in how we deal with dementia is to be commended. I will not try to mention everybody who has been involved, because I will miss somebody out and someone will take the huff, but everyone has done a tremendous job.
I am not an expert on dementia, and I do not know as much about it as many other people do. I have been fortunate in that my family and those who are close to me have not been sufferers—yet. We all know that it can happen to anyone at any time. I remember that many years ago, when Nicola Sturgeon and I were out campaigning in a by-election, we spoke to a couple and the lady was suffering from dementia. Nicola and I still talk about it, because even at that time the lady was younger than I was. She was between Nicola's age and mine. Although the vast majority of sufferers are over 65, as the figures show, there are people who suffer from pre-senile dementia, which must be a huge burden for their families.
The projected figures for South Lanarkshire, where I live and which my constituency covers, bear thinking about. It is reckoned that, during a 10-year period, the number of sufferers in South Lanarkshire will increase by 25 per cent. However, the increase in East Kilbride is estimated at 51 per cent, which raises issues. Dr Simpson spoke a lot of sense about how we ask service providers to deal with the issues.
Talking of service providers, there is a group in my constituency that I have come to know well—the East Kilbride dementia group. The group supports dementia sufferers who are still living in the community and works to maintain their independence. I am hugely impressed by the work that it does, particularly as it was founded in 1991 and has been working all this time. It has accepted a massive challenge and it has succeeded because it pushed out the boundaries and did so with a great passion and belief. It believes in a homely environment with small groups of service users and that the ideal setting has a service user to staff ratio of no more than 3:1.
The group helps people to maintain their independence, supports and helps people to live at home and provides opportunities for social activity. I thought it was great when the group told me that, although the users might not remember that they had a day out or where they went, as the old clichés might suggest, they will have the sense of wellbeing that is so important because it maintains the sense of life and of being worth while. We should never forget that, because it is just as important as many of the other aspects.
The last thing I want to mention is a wonderful example of community spirit. A small company in East Kilbride called Ecebs recently did a team-building exercise with its staff and it decided to help a local charity. It went to the East Kilbride dementia group and 30 Ecebs staff—the entire staff complement—turned up for an away day at the group's premises. From the managing director Alan Moody right down, the entire team spent the whole day completely redecorating the group's premises and doing all the gardening and handyman and handywoman jobs that needed to be done. Is that not a wonderful example of community spirit? There were benefits for both sides. Ecebs benefited from its teamwork and the dementia group benefited from the work that was carried out for them. That is to be commended. I hope that other small and large companies that tune into some of what we talk about in Parliament will take up that idea which can be done in the local community, rather than pay consultants a fortune to run team-building exercises.
Again, I congratulate Irene Oldfather and everyone else.
As the vice-convener of the cross-party group on Alzheimer's, I thank Irene Oldfather for her tremendous commitment to dementia, and I commend all those who have been involved in producing the charter of rights for people with dementia and their carers. I can certainly confirm that there is nowhere in this Parliament for members to hide when Irene Oldfather is looking for them, particularly if she wants them to sign her charter.
In a previous debate, Cathy Jamieson compared the human rights of a person with dementia with the human rights of prisoners. The difference that she highlighted was stark, and I trust that the charter will go some way towards bridging the gap. As Irene Oldfather pointed out, "Remember, I'm still me" highlighted very serious failings in care of the elderly, including care of people with dementia. Dementia services are often poorly resourced, patchy and inappropriate and are often provided by staff who have little or no knowledge of the illness. The charter provides a clear list of what individuals can expect and demand and, as the cross-party group has stated,
"aims to empower people with dementia, those who support them and the community as a whole, to ensure their rights are recognised and respected."
I hope and trust that the charter will push dementia care further up the political agenda, particularly given the projected increase by 2029 of 65 per cent in people with dementia. On the basis of current care patterns, an additional 16,800 hospital and care home places will be required to deal with that increase. We must all be aware of that.
Although I welcome everything in the charter, it would be naive of me to think that it will resolve all the issues related to dementia care in Scotland. However, one solution that was highlighted at a briefing that was given this week in Parliament by psychologists from across Scotland will undoubtedly help to deal with some of the issues that it identifies. In her presentation on the key role of psychologists in services for older people, Dr Jennifer Borthwick, who is a consultant clinical psychologist from NHS Lanarkshire, highlighted the fact that, for people aged under 20, there are eight psychologists per 100,000; for those aged 20 to 64, there are 6.7 per 100,000; and for the over-65s, there are 0.6 per 100,000. In other words, although they make up 20 per cent of the population, the over-65s get only 5 per cent of the psychology workforce. Many reasons were suggested for that lack of psychological support, including stigma, the stiff upper lip and people saying, "Well of course you're depressed. You're 75, you've got arthritis and your husband died five years ago." However, the sad fact is that the patients are as likely to think that way as the referrers.
Dr Borthwick also pointed out that older people are not what they once were. We have heard that 60 is the new 40; well, perhaps 80 is the new 60 and perhaps older people's expectations of services and how they want to be treated have changed. As Dr Borthwick made clear, over-65s no longer expect to go to a day centre or care home to listen to Jimmy Shand for six hours. We have also moved on from the stiff-upper-lip stereotype to a cohort that is more used to expressing emotions, making demands, expecting more than is being provided at the moment with regard to individual need and looking for services to reflect the lifestyles that they enjoy and expect to enjoy. We need only look at the two ladies on the charter's front cover to realise that.
I pay tribute to Irene Oldfather's tenacity and hard work in pursuing a cause that is very close not only to her heart but to many hearts in Scotland—after all, 69,500 people in the country suffer from dementia—and I thank the many groups who have worked on and helped to produce this very important charter.
I speak not only as the convener of the cross-party group in the Scottish Parliament on older people, age and ageing, but as someone with personal experience. My mum had dementia for a number of years. Although we went to visit my parents two or three times a week, including every Sunday when all the kids in the family went, we did not know that my mother had dementia because my father covered it up constantly. It was only after my father died that we realised that the reason why he had kept such a close watch on my mother was because she had dementia. For example, if he was going to the shops, he would tell her to stand at the window and watch. We used to think—unfairly now, we realise—that my dad was a bit of a control freak because he told my mother to stay there. After he died, we realised that that was for her safety, because she would have wandered out of the house otherwise. The stress and strain on my dad must have been tremendous.
Eventually, my mother could no longer live on her own because, unfortunately, she would wander out of the house at 4 o'clock in the morning. We tried to stay overnight at certain times, but that was not always possible because we were working, so a care home was the only place that my mother could go.
My experiences of care homes, from visiting my mother and from visiting professionally through the cross-party group, have been a mixed bag. As members will know, there are very good care homes and some not-so-good ones. The sad thing is that many people in the care homes that I have visited have not had dignity. As Dr Simpson mentioned, they were not fed and they were left to sit. When they asked to go to the toilet, they were told they had already been.
In a number of care homes that I visited, people were treated abysmally. That experience was distressing, particularly when some of those people had no relatives to visit them. I became their relative and part of their family. People with dementia just want to be listened to. They would talk about the times way back, and sometimes I was their mother or sister, but that did not matter because they were happy that I was willing to give them my time.
There are several reasons why it is important that we have a charter of rights. One is to ensure that dementia is highlighted and that awareness is raised through advertising campaigns and leaflets in doctors' surgeries. If I had known that my mum was suffering from dementia, I might have been able to do more about it. There are lots of people in the same situation as my family and I were in.
We must also ensure that training is provided in care homes. There are some good care homes that stimulate people's minds and take them on outings. As Linda Fabiani said, perhaps they do not remember the outing the next day, but they feel better inside because of it. We must highlight the need for training.
Another important aspect is that, if we are to provide proper care, it must be proper care across the board. We cannot have a postcode lottery. The proper care must be provided everywhere and not just in certain areas. That is important and it is highlighted in the charter.
I am pleased that the minister has said that the Government will adopt the charter. As I said, dementia could happen to any of us—it could happen to me tomorrow or next week. I have met many people with dementia, including my mother. Some of those folk should have had a good quality of life—they should have had dignity and been treated as human beings—but they did not. It is important that, when the charter is launched, people are treated with dignity and as human beings.
Once again, I commend Irene Oldfather for the hard work that she has done to produce the charter, which is important. Her ideas will be put into every care home and doctor's surgery. I await the minister's response to the debate, but I thank her for taking on board Irene Oldfather's suggestions.
I welcome the opportunity to speak in the debate and to support the charter of rights for people with dementia in Scotland. It is a recognition not only of human rights but of the practical needs and the need to empower those who suffer from dementia, as well as the families and carers around them who suffer as a result of dementia.
As every other speaker has done, I put on record a tribute to Irene Oldfather. Every year, there is a politician of the year award—although some of us do not go every year—when the big hitters in the Parliament, if I can put it that way, are recognised. They are always there and the list is never a big surprise. However, if we were to take a straw poll among members, asking for names of members whom they know genuinely to campaign not for their ego or their own regard but because they truly believe in something—members who campaign on issues and who have made an incredible difference on them in the Parliament and throughout Scotland—I do not think that any member would not agree that Irene Oldfather would be right up at the top of that list.
That is the embarrassing bit over. I also pay tribute to the minister and to the Scottish Government, because on many steps along the way in the past year or so Shona Robison and the Scottish Government have been there with the cross-party group and with the people who are speaking up on this very important issue. Such an approach is an important part of how we can take forward the charter and make progress on the practical issues that we addressed in our debate earlier this year, such as how accident and emergency departments deal with people with dementia.
As Sandra White said, there is patchy provision in care homes. Some members will probably know that my father-in-law suffers from dementia, so my family—particularly my partner—has first-hand experience of the issue. We have gone down the slippery slope of seeing somebody that we know, love and care for slipping away from us into almost a different place. We have experienced losing someone who is still there in front of us. We have had to cope with how it works in respect of the care that the person receives at home and how it works for them and their family and the care that they receive when they move into a care home. We are generally very happy with the care that my father-in-law receives in his care home, but I will pick up on one matter in which there is always room for improvement: taking forward some of the important issues around social activity, which Linda Fabiani mentioned.
I recall one occasion when my partner was despairing of the situation that faced her when she went to see her father. We had to sit down and think about how to engage with this person and get back some connection. She decided to read Burns to him because he loved—and still loves—Burns. She said that at first she felt incredibly foolish doing it, but what was amazing was that the heads of all the other elderly people sitting around him soon lifted from their chests. They might not have heard the words, and they probably did not understand them even if they did, but they all heard the intonation and realised that there was something there. It got through.
It is like living with somebody in a fog. Sometimes we do silly things, such as take along ice cream on Christmas day; it does not matter that it is Christmas day as we decide to do something that we know will get through.
Carers and families face an awful lot of stresses and challenges, such as violence or the kind of language that is used to them. If one big message to carers and families can come out of the debate, it is that the charter is not only for those who suffer from dementia but a recognition of what they have to deal with.
I pay tribute to local projects in my constituency such as the Corstorphine Dementia Project, which our old friend and colleague Donald Gorrie is heavily involved with, and to the national Alzheimer's charities and organisations, which have helped so much not only on the charter but with the cross-party group. Although the charter will not make everything right, I hope that the cross-party and Government support for people who suffer from dementia will carry forward into resourcing and services that make life a little bit better and, if possible, a lot better for them.
I thank Irene Oldfather for bringing a further debate on dementia to Parliament. To spare her blushes I will not add any more fulsome praise, other than to say that I think that the praise that she has been given during the debate is all deserved. I also thank the cross-party group on Alzheimer's for its on-going support, commitment and attention to the issue.
Dementia is an illness that has a devastating impact on the lives of so many people in Scotland. We have heard personal testimonies to that from members throughout the chamber. It is therefore right that Parliament continues to pay close attention to the subject.
Listening to what has been said both today and in the debate on 9 September, I know that we all have a common goal, which is to ensure that people with dementia and their carers and families feel confident that they have the very highest quality of care. We are all able to offer examples of where the quality of care and therefore the quality of life are certainly far from the best. We all have to ensure that such examples become a thing of the past—Irene Oldfather talked about consigning them to the dustbin of history.
It will not be easy and it will not happen overnight, but I am proud that the Scottish Government and our partners are together beginning to address this problem head on through the development of a dementia strategy to build on the progress that we have already made.
I agree that we cannot make things better for people with dementia without recognising their right to be treated as individuals. For that reason, I welcome the focus in the charter on promoting the rights of people with dementia and the standards that should always be applied day in, day out as part of good practice across all care settings, including in the person's home.
I therefore very much support the motion's focus on envisaging the charter as an instrument to enable cultural change in dementia care and as a powerful tool to empower those with dementia.
We already have legislation and standards in place in Scotland that can address many of the issues that are raised in the charter. For example, our mental health legislation has led the way in ensuring that at its heart are dignity and respect; participation; the least restrictive alternatives; maximum benefit to the individual; non-discrimination and equality; fairness; and autonomy. Of course, those principles mirror equality and human rights legislation and they are also reflected in our patients' rights bill, which is in development. We all know how important it is that people are treated as individuals, to ensure that their health care is designed to respond to individual needs, and that patients participate in their own health care. In introducing a patients' rights bill, we will be able to provide a clear framework and guidance to support that.
The focus of much of the charter is, quite rightly, on the quality of service. Our work on the dementia strategy is exploring how we might use standards more effectively to promote quality and improvement and how we can use the new scrutiny arrangements of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Bill and the arrangements that will be brought forward under the patients' rights bill to secure better outcomes for those with dementia.
In looking at future standards, will the minister also look at the role of psychologists, who are highly trained to do direct clinical work, train and support staff and carry out supervision and consultancy, in supporting older people with dementia?
I was certainly very interested in the figures that Mary Scanlon talked about and I will have more of a look at them. I can tell her that Dr Jennifer Borthwick, to whom she referred, is involved in the development of the dementia strategy. I hope that, through her involvement, those issues will come to the fore.
We are also looking at how to improve the knowledge and understanding that those providing services have about people with dementia and at how we use that information to maintain the dignity and humanity of care and treatment.
We are also examining how we can embed the personalisation agenda in our work on dementia, not least in thinking about the behaviours and cultures of health and care staff in responding to dementia. We have heard examples of that tonight.
We will be considering the arrangements for the protection of rights for those with dementia and the application of the Millan principles.
We will be considering how to promote physical and social activity for those with dementia—which is a very important issue that has been raised—both in care homes and in other care settings, including the home. It has already been said that some people do not see anyone from a Friday right through to a Monday, which cannot be right. We need to see what more we can do to reduce the social isolation of people who remain in their own home.
As part of the strategy, we launched a consultation paper last week, and a copy was passed to the cross-party group on Alzheimer's. I look forward to receiving its comments on the strategy.
We want the strategy to continue to be a shared endeavour and, most important, to have input from the real experts. That is why we have someone with dementia and a carer in each of the work streams. Those people are telling us what we are not getting right and I greatly value their contribution.
The transformation of care services will not be easy and cannot be done overnight. Improving how a whole system works and changing it to meet the needs and interests of the individual service user will be a huge endeavour. However, we said at the outset that dementia is a national priority in Scotland. That commitment must be measured against the improvement in the quality of care that people with dementia experience, and that care must ensure that it addresses the rights and dignity of the person with dementia.
I recognise the launch of the charter as an indication of the cross-party group's level of commitment to this agenda. I welcome the focus on individual rights and the standards of care that people routinely receive—and should expect—as part of their experience of the care system. I expect the work on the dementia strategy to consider all the issues that are raised in the charter. I look forward to the outcome of its considerations as part of the wider work. In taking that forward, I am happy to say that I will come to the next meeting of the cross-party group to discuss matters further, including how we can ensure that there is synergy and that the issues that are raised in the charter come through the dementia strategy as it is developed.
I thank members very much. This has been a really good debate to take part in.
Meeting closed at 17:50.