T1. Mr McGrath asked the Minister of Health what steps he is taking to publish data on the number of people in each trust area who are living with the various types of dementia. (AQT 371/22-27)

I thank the Member for his question. Dementia is an issue that is so broad and impacts so deeply on so many people. I am sure that the Member popped in to the Parkinson's UK event earlier today in the Long Gallery. I know that his colleague sitting behind him, Mr McGlone, was there. If I may divert for a second, I put on record, as I did upstairs, my thanks to the thousands and thousands of carers, particularly unpaid carers, who provide such fantastic work to us.

In breaking down numbers across the various geographic health trusts, I am not sure whether that has been done, to be frank with the Member. I will certainly make it my business to find out. As I have said previously, data is absolutely key to maximising the resources and the capacity of the health and social care system to deliver for patients.

I thank the Minister. There are new modifying therapies awaiting approval, and some of them are very beneficial to those with an early stage of Alzheimer's, but not other forms. Therefore, having that data and understanding that data is critical to early intervention, which will help people to live with the condition for longer. Does the Minister agree that getting that early diagnosis is crucial to helping people?

I certainly do. I think that, first of all, awareness and education and then early detection and prevention — these things all go together. Social prescribing is something that is relatively new in health and social care, and that is very important. I do puzzles and crosswords to try to keep myself mentally fit. My dear late mother, when she was in her eighties, liked to do things like Wordle. In fact, when the Glider came on stream in east Belfast, she used to get the Glider into town to go for a cup of coffee. She felt that it kept her active and mentally stimulated. There are a lot of things besides pills and tablets that we have to look at to address these issues — I was going to say "tackle these issues", but it is not going to go away. It is a question of handling it to the best effect. Yes: awareness, education and early detection are absolutely critical.