After my kind and funny mum was diagnosed with dementia she was handed a leaflet … and that was it

A doctor describes how his mother’s dementia diagnosis followed years of worsening memory, judgement and behaviour, while her local memory service lacked a doctor able to assess her scan promptly. The account highlights the strain on families and concerns about how stretched services can leave people with dementia and their carers without adequate support.

Her difficulties began after scans showed strokes in her brain, alongside high blood pressure and cholesterol, but the family initially attributed changes to other stresses. Over time she struggled with planning and money, forgot pans on the hob and became less safe at home; she repeatedly refused referrals before eventually agreeing to an assessment. When her scan results arrived, a nurse asked the author, himself a doctor, to interpret them because the service had no in-house doctor and its visiting consultant was away.