With all the recent media attention surrounding social care and what this means for older people, we felt it was important to share our views and be part of the discussion. Having provided training for family carers and professionals for the past eight years, we have seen first-hand the challenges dementia creates for families and the need for greater understanding and practical support for people with dementia and those who care for them.

Awareness is growing and approaches are gradually changing, but there is still a long way to go. We hope the next stage of the conversation will lead to bigger changes for people facing dementia and their families.

The government’s announcement has recognised the important contribution made by millions of unpaid carers, while Baroness Louise Casey has spoken about the need for better integrated services and more support within communities. These may be national policy discussions, but for families affected by dementia they have very real, personal consequences. They can mean fear about whether appropriate care will be available when it is needed, anxiety about how to pay for it and concern about what the cost could mean for their savings or the family home.

Baroness Casey described dementia as “the thing we fear most” on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. For many people, that fear may relate to receiving a diagnosis and what dementia could mean for their future. Our training cannot remove that fear or eliminate the wider impact of dementia. However we have seen that when family carers and professionals better understand dementia and have the tools to support the well-being of the person living with it, that can reduce distress and make day-to-day experiences feel more manageable.

Our training looks at what may be happening for the person with dementia and how those around them can adapt their response to help promote well-being, reduce distress and build relationships. After attending our course, some family carers have told us that they felt they had “got their husband back” or had seen their mum smile for the first time in months. These experiences show the difference that a greater understanding of dementia and a change in approach can sometimes make.

Anyone can use this approach, whether they are a health or care professional or a family carer. However, it takes time to understand, try out and embed. That is why our training is interactive and takes place over a number of weeks, rather than in a single session.

We appreciate that training is not the whole solution, but we believe it can promote smoother day-to-day experiences for people with dementia and those who care for them. Having provided our training for eight years, we have seen the difference it can make and we want to support even more people to use this approach when interacting with someone with dementia.

The current discussions have also renewed attention on some of the most difficult questions surrounding adult social care: how people access help, how care should be funded, the value placed on the social care workforce and the enormous contribution made by unpaid family carers.

A dementia diagnosis can also change long-established roles within a family. Cultural, generational and personal circumstances all have an impact, and a partner may suddenly find themselves managing household finances, cooking, using online services or making significant decisions they have never previously had to handle.

Family carers may be balancing these new responsibilities with employment and financial pressures, their own health issues and the emotional impact of supporting someone they love. They are often also expected to navigate a complicated and fragmented care system at an already overwhelming time.

Family carers cannot be expected to manage all of this alone. Any changes to social care need to recognise what everyday life is really like for people with dementia and those supporting them, and make sure families can access practical help when they need it.

Support also cannot sit with one service alone. It can be the shop cashier who helps someone use the points on their loyalty card to pay for their shopping because dementia means they have accidentally left their credit card at home. It can be the person who replies “Happy Christmas” in March rather than questioning or correcting them, or the family carer who finally feels heard and understood after receiving one-to-one support from our charity.

These moments may seem small, but they can make a real difference to someone’s day. We agree that it takes a community to support people with dementia, which means everyone from health and care professionals to shops, banks, transport services and community organisations needs an understanding of dementia and how their response can reduce distress and support well-being.

Family carers also bring knowledge and experience that services need to hear. They must be listened to, included and part of every conversation about care.

At Understanding Dementia, we provide training for family carers who would like practical help to better understand dementia, reduce avoidable distress and promote well-being. Anyone interested in finding out more can contact us through our website.