People with dementia are being denied their legal right to budgets to control their own care, according to a charity.
Now, Scottish carer support charity Mecopp has been awarded £100,000 in lottery-backed support to help it challenge such discrimination.
The policy of Self Directed Support (SDS) is meant to give people the power to decide how money for their care is spent to meet their social care needs.
Some find that the services they offer dictate things like when they have meals or when they go to bed - to meet the needs of councils and services, the charity said.
SDS should mean they can choose who is paid to look after them, or what kind of care they get, or the time they get it. But many older people, particularly with dementia, are denied that choice by councils, according to Mecopp.
It says many people with dementia and their families are either not offered SDS or not offered all four of the options usually given to other people with care needs.
This means they are being denied their basic entitlements under the Social Care (Self-directed support) (Scotland) Act 2013.
The Life Changes Trust, charity set up with a Big Lottery Fund endowment of £50m, has given Mecopp funding to provide legal support to people with dementia and their carers who they feel that they have not been dealt with fairly.
Suzanne Munday, Chief Executive of MECOPP, said: “The funding award marks a very important milestone in enabling people living with dementia to have full and equal access to self-directed support. A diagnosis of dementia should not adversely affect rights and entitlements which are enshrined in legislation.”
Anna Buchanan, Director of the Life Changes Trust dementia programme said: “This project is about fairness, equal access and the human rights of people living with dementia. People with dementia should not be alienated from their rights simply because of their diagnosis."
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