Home Improvement Agencies, Dementia and Older people

This paper was first published in April 2009 in the Journal of Care Services Management, and is available free of charge for a 6-month period by kind permission of Maney Publishing (http://www.maney.co.uk/journals/csm_ (opens new window)). It considers the need for, and some potential means of delivering, practical support services that can enable older people with dementia to live in mainstream housing for longer. Dementia and other mental health problems amongst older people are major and growing issues facing frontline services in the UK. While policy to date has primarily focused on the implications for health and social care services, with some consideration of demand for specialist supported housing, less attention has been paid to mainstream housing-related service provision, particularly for the vast majority of older people who live in their own homes.