THE charity Alzheimer Scotland is asking councillors across Scotland to sign up to a pledge aimed at protecting or providing dementia-related services.

A letter by chief executive Henry Simmons says human intervention is the best way to tackle and treat the incurable condition.

There are only four drugs available to treat dementia, and none stops its progression. An estimated 84,000 Scots are living with dementia – a number expected to double within a generation – and one in three people will die from it.

Mr Simmons says some authorities may seek to achieve savings by re-tendering services or encouraging greater competition, but he warns: "This has potentially devastating consequences and is a breach of human rights."

He added that every family will soon have some personal experience of dementia and that it will become "one of the greatest future world issues."

The letter comes on the back of efforts to raise awareness of dementia by Tommy Whitelaw, of Glasgow, a full-time carer for his mother, Joan.

Mr Simmons writes: "Generic carers' services, day services or care-at-home services simply do not work for people with dementia. No-one expects people facing other terminal conditions such as cancer to make use of generic services. Yet somehow this seems acceptable for people with dementia."

Mr Whitelaw will meet councillors in Edinburgh on Wednesday.