Young at Heart Café on BBC Breakfast News
The BBC visited the Young@Heart Café after a recommendation from the local Alzheimer’s Society on Wednesday 18 January for a feature on dementia care that was aired the following day.
The film starts with an interview with an elderly couple, Ananga and Joanna. Ananga has Alzheimer’s. and the reporter explains that they are only getting support from the Alzheimer’s Society – they say they feel abandoned.
Ananga says: “I want to make my journey as pleasant as possible, but I feel sorry for my wife to go through it with me.”
As the BBC reporter explains that, the government said by the end of 2022, it would publish a 10-year plan to tackle dementia, spelling out ways to improve care, research, diagnosis and ways to avoid preventable cases. But it’s now 2023, and there’s still no plan...
Cut to: Sajid Javid, ex-Health Secretary announcing the plan at an Alzheimer’s Society event on May 17 2022: “When a visionary plan comes together with powerful partners and proper funding and we couple it with care and compassion, that combination can be unbeatable.”
Young@Heart Cafe on the Beeb
Clip from BBC Breakfast News broadcasted on Thursday 19 January 2023 featuring footage and interviews at the Young@Heart Cafe held on 18 January
What follows next was read by the BBC reporter:
Young@Heart in Luton, where music, song and exercise give people with dementia a weekly boost. It’s run by Maria (Editor’s note: the Café is actually co-ordinated by Maria Collins and Christine Boyd), who is exasperated at the delays of the government’s dementia plan.
Maria says: “It feels like we’re in a vacuum. Organisations don’t know where dementia services should be going, where the support is coming from, or where the funding is coming from.”
The report continued:
Young@Heart relies on volunteers and donations. Many here would like to see more places like it and more support.
One of our regular guests ‘Danny’ visits with his wife and daughter, Louise was also interviewed, and she said:
“This my Dad, Danny. He can barely communicate with us, he can’t walk. It’s taken so much from him, which obviously impacts on us. Something needs to be done and quickly.”
The Alzheimer’s Society will deliver a letter today to the PM calling for the government to honour its dementia commitment and to tackle falling rates of diagnosis.
Maria is asked: “What’s your message to the government?”
She replied: “I want them to take that leadership that we want and to give dementia a focus.”
High-quality dementia care…
In a statement, the Department of Health said it wants a society where every person with dementia gets high-quality compassionate care. It said £17m had been spent last year tackling dementia waiting lists and diagnosis, and funding for research would double to £160m by 2024
Ananga will be one of the people delivering the letter to 10 Downing Street.
“I feel like we’re the lost soldiers, the lost people.”
He believes it will be one of the most important journeys he’s ever made.
After this feature, there was a live interview in the studio with racing driver Jackie Stewart. His wife Helen developed frontotemporal dementia in 2014, which spurred him on to set up the charity Race Against Dementia.
Find out more about local dementia services
Please contact the local Alzheimer’s Society, Dementia Support Luton on 01582 470910 on Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm