3. Will the First Minister provide an update on how the Welsh Government is supporting people living with dementia in north-east Wales? OAQ(5)0684(FM)

We’ve provided nearly £8 million extra a year to improve dementia services in Wales. In line with our ‘Taking Wales Forward’ commitment, we’ve also been working closely with stakeholders to develop a dementia strategic action plan, which will be published in the autumn.

Thank you, First Minister. I welcome the Welsh Government’s commitment to supporting people living with dementia and their families. You’re right to say that, at the core of any strategy and action plan, it must be the people who are the experts—the people who are actually living with dementia, their carers, and their families—who are at the core of that.

Priority has to be given to make sure that people living with dementia live as well and for as long as possible. For that to happen, we need to have the resources to support, educate, and empower. On that, I’m pleased that two towns in my constituency, Mold and Flint, now have the status of dementia-friendly towns. More and more things like memory cafes are cropping up across the county. Flintshire County Council are working, amongst other things, on accrediting more businesses with working towards having dementia-friendly status, with pledges of action. On that note, last week, I myself and all my staff completed dementia friends training. Even as someone who has got a close relative living with dementia, it certainly opened my eyes to things as part of that training.

So, can I ask, First Minister, will the Welsh Government commit to working towards making sure that more businesses and organisations across the country do have that dementia-friendly status? Will you join with me in encouraging those Assembly Members who haven’t taken up the offer from the Alzheimer’s Society to do dementia friends training to do that, so that we can actually get to a point when we can say all Assembly Members and their offices in Wales are dementia friends?

Yes. I was at an event myself, a week last Friday, where the Alzheimer’s Society were present, and we talked about the issues surrounding becoming a dementia friend and the training that’s required to do that and, of course, as a Government we support that. Dementia cafes, we know, provide people with dementia, their families, and carers with the opportunity to meet in a friendly and relaxed environment where they can share experiences and, of course, offer peer support—hugely important as well. Expanding the availability of that support is an example of what we’re looking to achieve through the forthcoming dementia strategic action plan.

First Minister, it is shocking to note that, for half of those living with dementia in Wales, an initial delayed diagnosis is a serious issue, affecting themselves and of course their loved ones. Alzheimer’s Society Cymru have called for far more ambitious targets and interventions in this area. The society have also called for earlier diagnosis rate targets to increase annually as part of your Government’s forthcoming revised dementia strategy. Will you ensure that that overall aim and goal to allow for earlier diagnosis and intervention becomes a reality?

Hugely important. We know that in Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board, for example, about 49 per cent of individuals with dementia have a diagnosis. Difficult initially, and sometimes people themselves, if they have no-one who can recognise it for them, don’t recognise it. It’s important that that diagnosis is available. I know that BCU, for example, have begun work on developing a new local strategy for people with dementia, addressing the wide range of services that are required. That work, of course, involves working with dementia groups.

Dementia is incredibly hard on the family members who put their own lives on hold to care for a loved one with dementia. Carers become very tired and stressed. It’s a very traumatic thing to have to do to look after somebody with dementia because, effectively, you’re seeing them slip away piece by piece. How are you ensuring that adequate and consistent provision is being put in place by local authorities and health boards to support the needs of such carers in terms of respite care, advice and counselling?

Well, in addition to what I’ve just said to the Assembly, the Mental Health (Wales) Measure 2010 places a statutory requirement on all local health boards and local authorities to provide those with a diagnosis of dementia who need specialist mental health care, with a care and treatment plan designed around their needs and those of their carers.

She moves quickly, seamlessly on.

Cwestiwn 4, Simon Thomas.