Scottish Action on Dementia had its origins in informal meetings of individuals drawn from a variety of health care professions with a shared concern about the inadequacies of provision for dementia sufferers in Scotland in the mid 1980s. At the heart of these concerns lay the absence of any effective response to two major documents – the Timbury Report and SHAPE (Scottish Hospital Authorities Plans for the Eighties). Both accorded the highest priority to care of the elderly, particularly those suffering from mental illness, and had been accepted by all the principal parties concerned as the blueprint for health care policies in Scotland in the 1980s. The sober realities of 1985 prompted the founding members of Scottish Action on Dementia (SAD) to set themselves up as a multidisciplinary forum with three principal functions – to promote public education and awareness of dementia and its implications for sufferers, families and society at large; to act as an independent pressure group; and to monitor activities in the field of dementia care with a view to promoting and maintaining high standards. Five years later these objectives remain unchanged.