All have a element in debates on dementia and end-of-existence dilemmas | @guardianletters

George McNamara of the Alzheimer’s Society calls for “”leadership and integration across the program”. Photograph: Anna Gordon for the Guardian

In much of the current correspondence and features on end-of-lifestyle dilemmas (Campaigners fail to overturn ban on assisted suicide, 26 June The hidden costs of dementia, 26 June), the costs, the numbers, I have noticed tiny acknowledgment that inside the categories of the terminally unwell, the aged, Alzheimer’s and dementia lie – also typically hidden from view – the learning-disabled: individuals middle-aged and older males and women who lack capacity (or look to) but whose bodies are as powerful and match as their normal peers. No matter whether the alleged incapacity is a consequence of an autistic spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome or other disabling handicap, they are there but seldom get mentioned. Individuals of us who, regardless of whether as mothers and fathers, siblings, carers or overall health specialists, are intimately connected with the lives and deaths of the understanding-disabled know there are problems all around illness, hospital therapy, finish-of-life plans, capacity, “do not resuscitate” diktats, consent and easy ageing that want as considerably consideration as any other group. The lives of the finding out-disabled (or intellectually disabled) are as worthy of recognition and respect as their peers. Just since these lives are seldom related with the workforce, firms and trade unions, they must not be excluded from the debate on, for instance, assisted dying, and what George McNamara of the Alzheimer’s Society pleads for in your report on dementia: “leadership and integration across the program”. That should be for all men and women.
Michael Baron
Chair, Nationwide Autistic Society, 1962-67

• Your specific report on dementia notes that the ailment is creating British company to shed billions of lbs. This is definitely correct in a single crucial, if obscure, spot of the savings organization. My wife is in a care house and I have an enduring energy of lawyer under which I have to use her sources for her very own demands. From her earliest days she has been a saver and, as the price of her care mounts, it seemed wise to enhance her accumulated financial savings by incorporating to a stocks-and-shares ISA she has had for more than a decade.

This more investment was initially accepted but I was then asked to give identity paperwork for her, though she had been receiving typical 6-regular monthly accounts from the organization. Her passport had expired three months earlier and her driving licence was revoked simply because of her sickness. Although she has a nationwide insurance coverage amount and receives a state pension it took nearly 6 months of bureaucracy to create that neither she nor I was laundering cash.

The Alzheimer’s Society estimates that there are almost 700,000 dementia sufferers in England and Wales. If only one% run into this sort of dilemma it is the equivalent of every one of the City of London’s everlasting residents becoming deprived of an important tax-free proper.

When we lived for some many years in the US a driving licence was the principal form of identification. Ought to unwell health prevent you from driving, all 50 states offer a non-driver’s licence with a photograph and other vital specifics, so that you have an acceptable official ID. Why cannot the DVLA run a similar service?
Harold Jackson
Woolpit, Suffolk

• I wholeheartedly agree with your report, which highlights that everybody has a role to perform in assisting to make daily life much better for folks with dementia.

In Surrey, our “dementia pleasant” programme has seen much more than 100 men and women and organisations – like well being secretary Jeremy Hunt – sign up with the objective of assisting folks and their carers with the challenges they encounter everyday.

The “dementia champions” contain a car museum, a plumbing company and a company of solicitors who assist men and women carry out fundamental duties this kind of as buying, withdrawing funds from the bank or filling in types, even though a network of suggestions and assistance centres has also been established across Surrey by a host of organisations.

Only by councils, the NHS and communities pulling with each other as a single staff in this way can we truly guarantee that the expanding variety of men and women with dementia continue to lead energetic and independent lives in familiar surroundings and shut to their loved ones.
Cllr Mel Number of
Cabinet member for adult social care, Surrey county council

All have a element in debates on dementia and end-of-existence dilemmas | @guardianletters