Cross-cultural aspects of dementia

The proportion of elderly people in black and minority ethnic (BME) groups is increasing, and this will lead to a concomitant increase in the absolute number of dementia cases in this population. Methodological difficulties in conducting epidemiological research, diagnostic difficulties in research and clinical practice, available screening instruments, behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia, and prevalence studies in the UK in the context of dementia in BME groups are described in this article. With the pathways in care model, the difficulties that BME elders with dementia experience in accessing services are detailed along with evidence of improving access in some evaluative studies. BME dementia patients often have communication difficulties due to language and other barriers, and methods to improve this are reported, along with other broad principles of service provision. Some options to improve service access in the foreseeable future are also discussed.