Purpose
This paper aims to describe three dementia assessment services for people with intellectual disabilities to provide professionals with insight into planning this type of service.
Design/methodology/approach
Three services in England were contacted via email and telephone to collect data on their service provision. They were asked about the average age of individuals when receiving a baseline assessment, frequency of follow-up assessment, assessment instruments used and descriptive aspects of their services.
Findings
All three services offered proactive dementia assessment services to people with Down's syndrome (DS), with one service providing systematic screening via the GP. None offered proactive screening to people with intellectual disabilities who did not have a diagnosis of DS. All offered reactive assessment to this population if they experienced a decline in function. Services differed in terms of age at which baseline assessments were offered, frequency of follow-up and instruments used.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to compare dementia assessment provision between different services in England.
GPs’ opinions of health assessment instruments for people with intellectual disabilities: a qualitative study
