Dementia affects more than 700,000 people in the UK; Alzheimer's is the most common cause of dementia, affecting around 417,000 people in the UK and some four million in the USA. While dementia affects mostly older people, some 17,000 young people also have dementia in the UK. There are treatments, but no cure. Caring for people with dementia is a well-recognized burden, but recently there have been moves to represent this in a more positive light, emphasising people with dementia as individuals who deserve respect, rather than as the challenge as which they have traditionally been viewed. Nevertheless, for individual carers without enough support, having a loved one with dementia often remains challenging.