Social policy for people with dementia in England: promoting human rights?

This paper discusses whether current UK social policy promotes the human rights of people with dementia living in England. The author focuses on the role of recent legal reforms and key developments in social care policy – notably the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the 2009 National Dementia Strategy – in facilitating their human rights to liberty and self-determination, particularly a right to choose to live at home. The extent to which the National Dementia Strategy provides access to services and support which provide an alternative to institutional care is critiqued. Whilst recent legislative change has endorsed the rights of people with dementia to liberty and self-determination, it is suggested there is a lack of commitment in government policy more generally to providing access to social care to enable people with dementia to exercise these human rights