Dementia post-diagnostic support
Local Delivery Plan Standard; Figures to 2021/22

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) reports on the Scottish Government’s Local Delivery Plan (LDP) standard that everyone newly diagnosed with dementia will be offered a minimum of one year’s post-diagnostic support, coordinated by an appropriately trained Link Worker, including the building of a person-centred support plan.

Performance is reported in two parts:

1. The percentage of people estimated to be newly diagnosed with dementia who were referred for post-diagnostic support.

2. The percentage of people referred who received a minimum of one year’s support coordinated by a link worker, including the building of a person-centred support plan.

This report presents finalised figures for 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21 and provisional figures for 2021/22 which are subject to some service users completing their support.

Main points

• There were 8,915 people diagnosed and referred for dementia post-diagnostic support in 2021/22, compared to 6,567 in 2020/21. The COVID-19 pandemic and the infection control measures put in place are likely to have had an impact on the number of people being diagnosed and referred, particularly in 2020/21.
• The 2021/22 figure is the highest number of people diagnosed and referred for dementia post-diagnostic support in the six years covered by this report. The previous highest figure was 8,288 in 2018/19.
• Of those referred in 2021/22 for post-diagnostic support, 78.7% received a minimum of one year’s support. In 2020/21, the percentage was 81.9%.

Bar chart showing percentage of referrals who received a minimum of one year’s post-diagnostic support by NHS Board in financial year 2021/22.

Close

Percentage of referrals who received a minimum of one year’s post-diagnostic support by NHS Board; 2021/22¹

1. Figures for 2021/22 are provisional subject to all service users completing their support.

• In Scotland, 47.7% of those people estimated to be newly diagnosed with dementia in 2021/22 were referred for post-diagnostic support, compared to 33.7% in 2020/21.

Background

The Scottish Government published their new dementia strategy for Scotland: Everyone’s Story in May 2023.  This strategy builds on previous strategies and continues to recognise the importance of dementia post-diagnostic support and the outcomes for people living with dementia.

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) reports on the Scottish Government’s Local Delivery Plan (LDP) standard that everyone newly diagnosed with dementia will be offered a minimum of one year’s post-diagnostic support, coordinated by an appropriately trained Link Worker, including the building of a person-centred support plan. Data are presented by financial year of diagnosis 2016/17 to 2021/22, on people diagnosed with dementia who were referred for dementia post diagnosis support and of these how many people received up to 12 months support.

Part of the LDP standard calculation requires the number of referrals for PDS to be compared against an estimated number of newly diagnosed dementia cases each year. NHS Board level estimates of people newly diagnosed with dementia (incidence) used for this calculation are from the paper ‘Estimated and Projected Diagnosis Rates for Dementia in Scotland 2014-2020’ published by the Scottish Government in 2016. For financial year 2021/22 the rates referenced in this paper were used to create national, age specific rates of dementia incidence per 1,000 population which were then applied to the National Records of Scotland (NRS) Mid-2021 Population Estimates to obtain the incidence estimates. 

Further information

The next release of this publication is yet to be confirmed.