Peter Carter (“Safety in numbers: why we need more nurses”, 17 May) highlights the crisis of understaffing in hospitals where patients are at risk of being neglected and harmed. This critique would also apply to nursing homes which are struggling to care for the rising tide of people with dementia.There are many innovative programmes around the world that are directed at people with this illness. Many are driven by the desire to acknowledge the person behind the infirmity and to continue to enhance his/her dignity. Financial pressures are often cited as mitigating factors in securing adequate nursing staff to care for those with dementia. Person-centred care depends on a satisfactory ratio of carers to those being cared for. Technology may assist people with dementia to retain