The first year the helpline was open we received 3 enquiries – in the last year we have heard from hundreds of people and spoken to groups from Wandsworth to York which is very exciting. As we reach new audiences I too am learning about the current priorities for the people I am speaking to, for example, when I started giving talks as the Legal and Welfare Officer for Alzheimer’s Society I met with people who were horrified to hear that people with dementia paid, in the main, for their own care. Nowadays I never meet people who are unaware of the means tested social care people living with dementia receive, they are more interested in finding out how they might protect assets using legal tools such as ‘tenants in common’.
Recently life expectancy fell for UK residents for the first time in official longevity forecasts which means that, since age is our biggest risk factor for developing dementia, the numbers of people with dementia may also fall but projected figures are still high – by 2040 1.6 people will have dementia in the UK. This means that we have a huge client group to support: legal and financial questions can cause families great anxiety when they don’t know where to turn to find the laws/rules/regulations which govern the decision they have to make. We take the anxiety out of that process by providing a bespoke response to the queries we receive. Please help us to keep performing this vital work by supporting our fundraiser on Crowdfunder: http://bit.ly/2JJHt8W
Many thanks in anticipation.