Alzheimer's Society: Dementia prevalence stats are timely reminder to act

All political parties must act now and fight off the threat of dementia through strong policies, it is believed.

Alzheimer's Society spoke out after the release of the statistics from the Alzheimer's Research Trust, which revealed this week that instead of 700,000 people having dementia in the UK, the number is much closer to 820,000.

The charity's director of external affairs Andrew Ketteringham said that now a year on from the National Dementia Strategy for England, the research is a "timely reminder" of the "colossal dementia challenge" in the UK.

He pointed to "huge strides" in other fields such as heart disease and cancer, noting how these provide a lot of hope that the dementia crisis can be fought off with major investment, though a lack of dementia support has led to the UK wasting millions on poor dementia care.

Mr Ketteringham concluded: "With the right investment dementia can be defeated. Ahead of the election, all political parties must wake up to the human and economic cost of this devastating condition."

Read more about Barchester's dementia care homes.