Memory service for Southwark and Lambeth launched

Residents of Southwark and Lambeth are the first in London and among the first in the country to benefit from a new type of service to detect and diagnose the symptoms of dementia early. 

The Southwark and Lambeth Memory Service was officially launched today by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) and will treat the increasing number of people expected to suffer dementia because of an ageing population. 

The number of people with dementia in the two boroughs is expected to follow the national average and double in the next 30 years - with current levels as high as 4,500 cases.  Dementia is predominantly a disorder of later life and costs local health and social services more than heart disease, stroke and cancer put together - a figure expected to treble over the same period.

The service is a major collaboration between King's Health Partners¹ , which includes Guy's & St Thomas', King's College Hospital and SLaM NHS Trusts - and the Alzheimer's Society. Funding has been provided by NHS Lambeth and Southwark Primary Care Trusts.  

The service will focus on early intervention and diagnoses of dementia - a shift of emphasis from treating those with more advanced symptoms. An early diagnosis lets people take advantage of treatments to slow the onset of the condition - allowing them to plan their care before the condition worsens. This dramatically improves a patient's quality of life - largely by preventing institutionalisation.  It is also a cost effective and efficient way to manage and organise treatment of the disease.

Early diagnosis however is  clinically difficult and many GPs, nurses, care workers - healthcare staff who have most contact with older people most -require help in understanding the nature of dementia and in making referrals for diagnosis and treatment.  Some may incorrectly believe that dementia is a natural part of ageing and that nothing can be done. 

This is where Kings Health Partners and its focus on education and training come in to play.  Training on how to recognise and treat the early signs of dementia will be rolled out in healthcare settings across south London.  This includes staff working in hospitals, care homes, GP surgeries and health centres - effectively casting a net across Southeast London to pick up and identify people with the early signs of dementia.

David Norman, Service Director for Mental Health in Older Adults, SLaM, said: "The new service will reach out to people who we would not normally see for several years.  By diagnosing symptoms early we can dramatically improve a patient's quality of life for years to come."

People who approach their GP with concerns about a possible dementia will now be referred to the new Memory Service, based in Rotherhithe. Members of the 9-strong team will also work in the existing clinics at King's and Guy's & St Thomas's Hospitals as well as in selected primary care centres and in patients' homes in Lambeth and Southwark.  

ENDS

¹ King's Health Partners is a major collaboration between three of the countries most successful NHS Foundations Trusts - Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley, and one of the world's leading research universities, King's College, London.

Together, King's Health Partners forms an Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC) - one of only five in the UK.  The point of AHSC's is to break down barriers, and combine and focus first-class clinical and academic expertise to create world-leading improvements in healthcare.