Communicating a diagnosis of dementia

This paper is part of a suite of documents: Clinical Psychology in the Early Stage Dementia Care Pathway (2014), which has been produced by the Faculty of the Psychology of Older People (FPOP), Division of Clinical Psychology (DCP), British Psychological Society (BPS).

These papers address issues around the early stages of dementia in adults and focus on the following specific topics: Pre-assessment Counselling, Cognitive Assessment, and Postdiagnostic Support, and are accompanied by a paper summarising the views of people living with dementia (FPOP Consultation).

The focus of this paper is on issues around sharing a diagnosis of dementia with the person with dementia and the family.

However, communicating the diagnosis cannot be viewed in isolation from more general communication about the entire assessment process, so this paper is best understood in conjunction with the rest of the suite of documents.

It is part of the wider communication, commencing from the first stages of discussion with Primary Care Practitioners and other referral agents.

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