Learning Disability: Diagnosis
(asked on 10th February 2020) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that people with intellectual disability are not wrongly diagnosed as having dementia.
Diagnosis for dementia is only undertaken by clinical professionals. For example, a general practitioner (GP) in the first instance. If the GP is unsure about the diagnosis, they will refer the individual to a specialist for further tests.
To help promote and maintain best practice for diagnosing dementia, and ensure accurate diagnoses, NHS England has developed and published guidance aimed at GPs and practice nurses, as well as guidance on what good quality assessment and dementia diagnosis looks like. The guidance is available at the following links:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/dementia-revealed-toolkit.pdf