Call for better treatment for dementia sufferers in Leeds

The wife of a dementia patient from Leeds, who has been moved seven times in a little over 12 months, has called for better treatment for her husband and fellow sufferers.

Pauline Hayes is angry that her husband Allan, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 2006, was moved out of a specialist care unit because of a reorganisation of care plans before moving to accommodation with inferior facilities.

Mr Hayes had initially been cared for at home but moved to The Mount, a mental health in-patient facility near Leeds city centre last June. However a few weeks later, after a succession of moves, he was taken to Asket Croft in Seacroft which was purpose built for dementia patients and was seen as ideal for his needs.

However, following a centralisation plan by Leeds and York Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust, which provides mental health care in Leeds, he was on the move again, this time back to the Mount, and Mrs Hayes is upset her husband has been moved constantly and has ended up in a unit with poorer facilities than Asket Croft.

She said that the number of those affected by Alzheimer’s was increasing and people suffering from it needed a specialist, purpose-built building such as Asket Croft rather than The Mount which was merely a “stopping-off place”.