During the 70th WHA in Geneva, Switzerland, Minister Chen met with CEO of Alzheimer Disease International Marc Wortmann and shared with him the new policies Taiwan has adopted to better forestall dementia. The Minister particularly focused on how to diagnose dementia early on, delay its development, and devise preventive care programs for frail senior citizens. Marc stated that the design of Taiwan’s dementia shared care centers is completely in line with the outline of the global action plan on dementia, such as raising the rate of diagnosis to 50% and setting up more community service stations for mild dementia patients at more locations, in order to minimize the impact of dementia on families and economics.

Minister Chen stated that Taiwan has already investigated the prevalence of dementia and devised a national policy framework for dementia. About 8% of people aged 65 or older in Taiwan suffer from dementia, and the number is estimated to exceed 260,000 in 2016 and 850,000 in fifty years. Health is basic human rights; Taiwan supports the Draft Global Action Plan on the Public Health Response to Dementia 2017-2025 proposed in the WHA. This year, Taiwan will also propose an updated version of the national policy framework for prevention and care of dementia. During the meeting, Minister Chen also mentioned President Tsai’s emphasis on the prioritization of dementia care in national health policies and her promise to support it with an increased budget. At the moment, the Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to install 63 dementia shared care centers, 368 community service stations, and a multifunctional dementia care model that can accommodate 1000 dementia patients by 2020. The local governments’ care for both the patients and the caretakers will also be reinforced, eventually making Taiwan a model for dementia care in the future.

Director of the Department of Nursing and Health Care Tsai Shu-feng also met with Co-Founder of Dementia Alliance International Kate Swaffer on May 23. The two exchanged their opinions on the Draft Global Action Plan on Dementia about to be passed in the Assembly and how future policy-making should allow direct participation of the patients and the caretakers. Both emphasized that the early participation of mild dementia patients in policymaking is a matter of human rights. Ms. Swaffer praised the efforts that Taiwan has made for dementia patients, especially the community service stations set up by the Family of Wisdom. She promised to include Taiwan’s examples in her lecture in the dementia conference.

Through these bilateral talks, Taiwan can exchange with the world each party’s current dementia policies, sharing our experiences and learning new perspectives at the same time. Leave no one behind. WHO cares, Taiwan cares.