The Current Status and Implications of the Implementation of Dementia Management Policy

Abstract

After the Dementia Management Act(2011) was enacted, dementia policy has growth markedly over the past 10 years through the Comprehensive Dementia Management Plan and the promotion of the “National Dementia Responsibility System”. The main achievements in this regard include a system for dementia prevention and early detection of dementia patients, the expansion of treatment and care coverage, and the establishment of a dementia management policy implementation system. The establishment of the Central Dementia Center, the Regional Dementia Center, and the Local Dementia Center has laid the foundation for the promotion of the dementia management policy. At the same time, it is evaluated that the long-term care insurance for the elderly and health insurance strengthened the coverage for dementia, meeting the care needs of dementia patients and their families and reducing the burden of care. In the future, there will be social demands for the efficient implementation of dementia management policies, and accordingly the need will grow for efficient role sharing between the current dementia management project execution organizations and related organizations. In this article, I examined the dementia management policy and the current status of protection of dementia patients in order to find ways to reorganize the roles of organizations performing the dementia management project. In the future, the Central Dementia Center and the Regional Dementia Center, including the Local Dementia Center, will need to support the implementation of dementia projects by related institutions as coordinators of dementia management policies in the region rather than directly involving in dementia diagnosis and provision of medical and care services in the dementia management policy. In this regard, I would like to suggest a role in overseeing dementia management policies in the region centered on customized case management.