Dementia diagnosis in care homes: how to find undetected cases

Dementia diagnosis rates could be improved by a diagnostic tool with five criteria to check and specialist nurses going into care homes and assessing residents

• Many residents of care homes have advanced dementia but have never been formally diagnosed
• An initiative being piloted in 14 trusts involves specialist memory nurses going into care homes to assess residents for dementia
• A tool for use in care homes called Diagnosing Advanced Dementia Mandate or DiADeM, simpler than a full assessment, is proving useful

The pandemic took its toll on memory clinics with many forced to close or scale back their services. This led to lengthening waits for dementia assessment and left many without a diagnosis.