A National Dementia Registry has been implemented in Ireland, as part of a joint effort on the parts of National Dementia Services, the Enhanced Community Care Programme, and the National Centre for Clinical Audit (NOCA). As described by Minister for Older People and Housing, Kieran O’Donnell, the purpose of the Registry is to identify gaps in care for people with dementia, to provide data needed for policy development and service planning, and to facilitate research.
“The National Dementia Registry will give us invaluable data on many aspects of the care of people with dementia, including when and where they are diagnosed, what type of dementia they have, what post-diagnostic and community supports they are getting, what medications they are taking and what their quality of life is. As well as supporting National Dementia Services and the Health Regions to plan the delivery of services, the National Dementia Registry will offer exciting opportunities for research on many aspects of dementia care and how we can improve the health and wellbeing of people living with dementia and their families,” said Dr. Seán O’Dowd, Clinical Lead for National Dementia Services.
Similar registries have been established in the past (the Irish Hip Fracture Database, the Irish National Audit of Stroke, the Irish Heart Attack Audit, to name a few) and the data they yielded has led to measurable improvements in care for the affected populations. Data for the Registry will be drawn from a number of sources including intake data for patients in the National Intellectual Assessment Memory Service, Regional Specialist Memory Clinics, and Memory Assessment and Support Services.
