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Dementia Assessments for People with Deafness, Deafblindness or Visual Impairment
Created: 11/04/2025
News/Events Category: Health and Social Care
The ALLIANCE has produced a report for the Scottish Parliament’s Cross-party Group on Deafness on dementia assessments and sensory care.
The aim of the working group on sensory care and dementia is to improve care pathways and support for people with dementia who also experience deafness, deafblindness or visual impairment, including British Sign Language (BSL) users. It aims to develop the first framework of sensory care standards for Scotland. They define sensory care as any type of care related to the senses which is necessary for a person’s communication, access to information and mobility.
The framework of sensory care standards will centre around several core areas, one of which will be sensory assessment. International research shows that dementia care professionals, and eye and hearing care professionals, commonly do not support people with dementia through a system of integrated care, including during the assessment of dementia.
The report includes findings from the research as well as recommendations.
Key information in the report includes:
- Most GPs (76%) did not assess hearing and sight as part of a memory/dementia assessment, or only did so if deafness, deafblindness or visual impairment was suspected.
- Only 6% of GPs specified that they would assess both sight and hearing as an integrated part of assessing memory/dementia.
- Most (60%) non-GPs and healthcare professionals did not know, or stated that sensory assessments would not be performed routinely.
- Very few (10%) health and social care professionals referred to national guidelines for hearing and sight assessments for people with dementia, and there was more knowledge for eye care than hearing care.
- 75% of respondents said audiology services do not offer support for hearing assessments as part of an established memory/dementia asessment pathway.
- Almost all respondents (92%) advised there was no direct referral route to or from ophthalmology and/or eye care services.
Click here to read the report.
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