According to the World Health Organization, there are currently around 50 million people worldwide living with dementia, with nearly 10 million new cases each year. By 2030, there will be an estimated 82 million people with dementia around the world, and 152 million by 2050.
Dementia is one of the most common causes of disability among older adults, and has physical, psychological, social, and economic impacts on the individual, their caregivers, families, and society. As the prevalence of dementia increases, so do the costs and burdens associated with this illness. In fact, Chow et al (2018) reported that the total estimated global cost of dementia in 2015 was 818 billion USD, accounting for 1.09% of the world’s GDP.
With the increasing incidence and impact of dementia on society, many countries around the world have developed a National Dementia Strategy as an official government policy to prioritize and carry out specific initiatives in order to better support individuals with dementia and their caregivers. Most recently, in 2017, Canada announced that it will become the 30thcountry to adopt a national strategy for dementia. This past June 2019, the Canadian government published its first ever National Dementia Strategy.
In light of this recent development, our team examined the existing 29 strategies worldwide and published a review, “National Dementia Strategies: What Should Canada Learn?” in the Canadian Geriatrics Journal (Chow et al., 2018). We have included a portion of our review below, as it captures the heart of what a National Dementia Strategy is.
"In order to address this changing demographic, many countries are adopting a National Dementia Strategy (NDS) as a comprehensive government plan to provide appropriate medical care for people with dementia. A government dementia plan is a policy whereby the national government holds itself accountable to carry out its stated specific objectives and policy changes, although objectives can be accomplished with non-governmental collaborators... Created using input from various stakeholders (i.e., government agencies, legislators, residential and community care providers, professional and family carers, researchers, physicians, and people with dementia), the NDS is tailored specifically to the unique culture and demographics of each country to address a range of issues. Common priorities for NDSs include: raising awareness of the disease, combating stigma, identifying support services, quantifying the number of individuals with dementia, assessing and improving the quality of dementia care, and assessing the availability and access to diagnostic services. These strategies have been well-received and reported as the single most powerful tool to transform dementia care and support within a country."
In the coming months, we will be taking a deeper look at Canada’s newly developed National Dementia Strategy and what it means for Canadians living with dementia and their caregivers / families. We are looking forward to exploring this exciting area with you all soon!
For more information on the current statistics and incidence rates of dementia, please refer to the World Health Organization here: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dementia
For our review on the 29 previously published National Dementia Strategies, please see: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6028171/
