Member's statement: Dementia
Member's statement by Ms Claire Sugden on .
- MLA
- Ms Claire Sugden
- Party at the time
- Independent
- Date
- 16 September 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Dementia
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5110901
Read the official Assembly record
Text
This month is World Alzheimer's Month, and it gives us a moment to reflect on how Northern Ireland responds to dementia. Unsurprisingly, we are not responding well. More than 22,000 people in Northern Ireland live with dementia today, and, by 2040, in less than a generation, that number will almost double. One third of those affected do not even have a diagnosis. Families are left in limbo and struggling, while their loved one declines before their eyes. That is a daily reality in households across this region. In my constituency, people wait for 15 months or longer — years in many cases — for a memory clinic appointment. That delay not only robs people of treatment but robs a family of their loved one and their dignity in their later years. The pandemic should have taught us a painful lesson. During COVID, people with dementia were among the most isolated. Day centres closed, families were cut off and the engagement and stimulation that help to slow decline disappeared overnight. We saw the effects: conditions worsened, decline accelerated and carers were left to cope alone. That experience should have shocked us into action, but here we are, years later, still failing to provide consistent meaningful support. That failure affects more people than those living directly with dementia. When we do not diagnose early or support carers and ignore our ageing population, we create a chain reaction of pressure across the entire health and social care system. It is the child waiting for an assessment and the woman whose gynaecological issues are left untreated: every time we ignore one part of the system, it is carried by another. The Executive cannot continue to firefight their way through the problems. We have been doing that for far too long; trying to keep the lid on issues that have spilled over long ago. We are not even managing that any more. We are struggling, and the people of Northern Ireland know it. Patients know it when they are waiting in pain in A&E for 72 hours. Carers know it when they are exhausted but have no choice but to keep going on their own. Families know it when they lose their loved ones to dementia. Yes, our dementia strategy is far out of date, but the deeper point is that our whole approach in the Executive and Assembly is out of date. We are still reacting instead of planning; we are still patching instead of fixing.
Dementia exposes the price of short-term thinking — people suffering at the end of their lives. For the life that they have given us, we owe them more, and, at the very least, we owe them dignity.
449 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.03 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.93).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- Subject area: Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits.
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.02 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.93 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.03 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits | 0.86 |
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.09 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.05 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:12 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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