Whole Systems Dementia Treatment:An Emerging Role in the NHS?

Alzheimer’s disease is increasingly understood as a disease state determined by multiple factors and mechanisms. Besides the usual risk factors of diet, exercise, cognitive stimulation and sleep hygiene, one recent review lists a wide range of other risk factors.[1] Although non–pharmacological treatments for dementia are perhaps less known among medical practitioners, the latest NICE guidance calls for these as a first point of call.[2] An integrative, complementary or ‘whole systems’ approach is designed to activate the body’s inherent healing mechanisms and treat the root cause of illness as well as associated symptoms.[3] Dementia often precedes other chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, and improves through similar pathways of diet and lifestyle changes. Therefore, targeting the causative factors for dementia would have the added benefit of addressing more broadly a wide range of common morbidities in older adults. We aim in this paper to introduce the concept of multimodal treatment for dementia (MT4D), share findings from the literature including case studies, review current NHS treatment in the Lancaster-Morecambe Memory Assessment Service (MAS), identify precedents for transformation in the NHS and offer a research collaboration as a step forward