Geographically and, more importantly, in its quality and quantity of dementia care.

National league tables (tried to look but can’t find them, but I do remember seeing it) show Scotland well above the rest of the UK for care. This is a postcode lottery, but on a national scale.

My personal experiences back this up; in England we were asked what help we wanted, not what was out there. In Scotland help was provided immediately by the Consultant, and it is ongoing in the guise of a link worker from the Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership.

From what I saw in England, the Alzheimer’s Society was more into providing research funding, whilst up here it is into enabling us with dementia to speak out about our experiences. Obviously, research is important, but those with dementia require assistance now, and enablement is a very important part.

Also, Scotland seems to be more up to date regarding early onset dementia (or young dementia, as I call it, I like the word “young”); when a need is recognised the NHS sets out to provide it, as does Alzheimer’s Scotland.

Have not even mentioned Frank’s Law!

Oh come on, I have to mention the B word at least once!

Without getting too political I see Brexit having two impacts on dementia.

Firstly, Brexit is crowding out all other govt policies so social care is being neglected; the prime example is in England where the plan for paying for care keeps getting postponed. Scotland is not so bad but time spent on Brexit is time not spent on other matters such as care.

Secondly, the social care sector relies on low paid workers. Whatever the rights and wrongs, Eastern European’s filled this gap. In my experience of working with them, they were diligent but did not always have empathy. In one case in Independent Living they tried to cook an Eastern European Christmas lunch for the residents instead of our traditional turkey and trimmings. The Minimum Wage is raising the income of care workers, but local authorities are unwilling to increase their payments to providers so there will come a time when there is an impasse which means the cared for will suffer.