The Ministry of Health and Welfare yesterday said it is planning to set up 72 community dementia care centers in accordance with its policy document Taiwan Dementia Policy: A Framework for Prevention and Care 2.0.
The Taiwan Alzheimer Disease Association yesterday on the first day of World Alzheimer’s Month held its annual academic conference in Taipei, with Dementia Alliance International chairperson Kate Swaffer delivering a keynote speach.
According to alliance data, about 9.9 million people worldwide are diagnosed with dementia each year.
A study commissioned by the ministry between 2011 and 2013 said that more than 260,000 people in Taiwan have dementia.
The National Development Council has predicted that the number will continue to increase, doubling to about 550,000 people by 2036.
“As one of the estimated 50 billion people in the world living with dementia, my mission has become to ensure people with dementia are not told to go home and prepare to die, but are supported to live positively,” said Swaffer, who was diagnosed with the condition at age 49.
“It is imperative that we focus on the human rights of people with dementia and their families,” she said, adding that governments, healthcare practitioners and communities should not just provide care for people with dementia, but also help increase their quality of life and reduce stigma, shame and discrimination.
Citing her own experience of having her driver’s license revoked, and healthcare practitioners advising her to quit her job and prepare for long-term care at a specialized care center, Swaffer said that those who advised her might have had good intentions, but they showed a common bias, assuming that people with dementia cannot make decisions on their own.
Taiwan has made efforts to protect the rights of people with dementia and the ministry launched its dementia policy in December last year, but dementia policies must be made in consideration of patients’ abilities and rights, helping them live positively and contribute to the society, she said.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) said the Taiwan Dementia Policy 2.0 would reference the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to establish proper action plans.
The ministry is also planning to establish 72 dementia care centers so that people in early stages of dementia can receive care and counseling services in their communities, he said.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
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TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
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