What do people with dementia and their carers really need?

By far and away the biggest research effort in connection with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias is aimed at achieving a cure and early diagnosis is considered to be an important aspect of this. In fact, early diagnosis tends to mean 'earlier diagnosis', which in turn means 'prediagnosis'. In this article I shall offer a critique of this view and point to some underpinning thoughts that I believe should inform practice. First, we need to rename dementia. Second, in order to understand the aging brain, we need to understand the notion of ` dementia-in-the-world'. Third, to think about care appropriately, we need to think of it from the perspective of the person. From this perspective, care - in the form of Heidegger's notion of solicitude - is fundamental and is, therefore, what people with dementia and their carers really need.