Stop talking start acting

I’m getting a sense of déjà vu.

In the news today MPs have urged the government to clamp down on the “dangerous over-prescribing” of antipsychotic drugs to people with dementia in care homes.

MPs say about 105,000 people with dementia are given prescriptions they do not need because antipsychotic drugs have no benefits and could even worsen residents’ conditions.

These drugs have been associated with an increased risk of stroke, social withdrawal, accelerated cognitive decline – especially verbal skills – and severe sensitivity reactions. Essentially, they can leave a person with dementia in a zombified state.

Haven’t we heard all this before? This story seems to keep coming back into the headlines about once every couple of months – indeed, I blogged about it back in February [http://bettercaringblog.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html]. Panorama also had a programme on it late last year.

Last time I wrote about this, I said it was good that the issue was being revisited because it should prompt something to be done. But it seems that – still – nothing is being done, except a lot of hand-wringing and points-scoring soundbites about how “the government must end this needless abuse”.

Various people in parliament and beyond have been saying this for months. Surely the time for talking has ended, there needs to be action to stop this drugging of care home residents now. Even if it is a directive to care homes and doctors telling them to stop prescribing antipsychotics unless they are a last resort, it would be something.

But this is not going to happen. While it seems that action will be coming, it will only be once the government’s much-vaunted National Dementia Strategy is published sometime later this year.

For some people, you can’t help feeling that it will be too late by then. For the 100,000 or so people still stuck in a zombified state – or even ushered to a quicker grave by needlessly prescribed antipsychotic drugs – time is something they do not have.