Supporting Campaigns

Carers are to be counted in the
Census 2011 - 9th April 2008

We have been informed that a question on carers is now going to be included on the 2011 Census, after funding was found for an additional page. The data provided from the 2001 Census was the first full data on carers and showed there were many more carers than had been estimated.

Carers are an important and integral part of our society, and continuing to include them in the Census ensures that they are not hidden again. It also gives valuable information that can be utilised when services are being planned and commissioned.

This is an important result for carers, and for for dementia , Carers UK and all the other organisations that have campaigned for carers to be included.

So thank you to all of you who sent out our Keep Counting Carers postcards to your MP and to Ivan Lewis, as it clearly had an impact!

Barbara Stephens, Chief Exceutive of for dementia, said "Thank you to everyone who has taken up the challenge to make your views heard. Members of Uniting Carers are involved in activities throughout the country and this is an excellent example of how important it is for carers to have a voice and a platform to ensure that your interests are represented.’’

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To Support the Campaign against the recent High Court judgment on access to Alzheimer’s drugs:

The result of the judgment is that people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease will continue to be denied access to effective treatment on the NHS, because of cost.

The Alzheimer’s Society chief executive Neil Hunt pledged the campaign would continue and said,

       ’’ The Alzheimer's Society has decided not to appeal the

          judicialreview on access to Alzheimer's drugs. We hope

          the NICE will also accept the Court's ruling on discrimination

          and further argument on that issue will be unnecessary.

         

          We still believe that it makes no clinical, monetary or moral                    sense to deny people in the early stages of Alzheimer's

          access to drugs but we have no plans to pursue our

          legal arguments on these issues further in the courts.

          Instead, we look to the government, in its review of NICE,

          to eradicate the glaring flaws in NICE's process that have

          lead to this unacceptable position.

          Caring for a person with dementia is an exhausting and

          difficult job, and unpaid carers save the UK £6 billion every

          year.

          It is only right that the impact treatment can have on a

          carer’s quality of life as well as that of the person with

          dementia is properly calculated.

          In March 2005, NICE recommended that no one

          with Alzheimer’s should be offered drugs on the NHS

          for a cost of just £2.50 a day.

        

          Thanks to the passionate efforts of our dedicated

          campaigners thousands more people now have access

          to treatment.

          The Alzheimer’s Society is committed to defeating                                dementia, a devastating condition that robs people

          of their lives.          

          We will continue to campaign on this issue.’’

 

For more information, look on the Alzheimers society website at http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/News_and_campaigns