The Ministry of Health and Welfare is to launch the second stage of its Long-term Care 3.0 on Thursday next week, expanding dementia services and upgrading community-based care as Taiwan transitions to a “super-aged” society.
The first stage of the new policy’s rollout began on Sept. 1 when the ministry eased rules on hiring foreign caregivers, allowing families to apply for community-based care services within the originally approved quota.
It also expanded the scope and payment limits of community-based transportation services, increased the reimbursement for nutritional care services and adjusted the content of home respite services.
Photo: Taipei Times
In the second stage, the initiative would be expanded to include younger people with dementia and those enrolled in the Post-acute Integrated Care Program, providing more appropriate care and support.
About 350,000 people aged 65 and older have dementia, a number expected to exceed 470,000 by 2031 and approach 680,000 by 2041, based on health ministry data and National Development Council projections.
The prevalence of dementia among people aged 65 and older is 7.99 percent, a ministry survey showed.
Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia and Parkinson’s disease-related dementia are the most common forms of dementia, with the prevalence at 9.36 percent among women, and 6.35 percent among men.
In addition to cognitive impairment, dementia is often accompanied by behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD), such as agitation, depression, anxiety, delusions, wandering and sleep disturbances, which significantly complicate care.
Under Long-term Care 3.0, eligibility for long-term care services would be expanded to include people with early-onset dementia — defined as those younger than 50 with functional impairments — to enable earlier intervention, the ministry said.
Measures include expanding care resources, training specialists and diversifying care options.
Starting next year, services would be provided according to disease stage, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Lue Jen-der (呂建德) said.
People with very mild or mild dementia who retain mobility could attend community-based dementia centers, while those with BPSD could use designated centers, he said.
Those with long-term care needs could access home-based or community care services, while people requiring 24-hour intensive care could move to group homes or designated sections of residential institutions.
The Ministry of Labor is also planning a program to help people with dementia return to the workplace, he said.
Nationwide, 15,539 integrated community care service sites, 1,184 day care centers, 36 group homes and 2,658 beds in dementia-designated residential sections have been established, along with 554 dementia community service sites and 132 dementia co-care centers, serving about 47,000 people over the past year, Lue said.
Funding for the predecessor program rose from NT$4.95 billion (US$157.03 million) in 2016 to NT$92.6 billion this year, an 18.7-fold increase, he said.
Under Long-term Care 3.0, the government plans to expand functional assessment coverage for older adults from 8.2 percent to 50 percent and promote community-based prevention of oral frailty, which affects up to 34 percent of people aged 60 and older.
Early dementia symptoms are often overlooked, with families sensing only that “something has changed,” Taipei City Hospital doctor Chiang Kuan-yu (姜冠宇) said.
Emotional instability, increased family conflict, difficulty navigating familiar routes or sudden financial confusion can all be warning signs, he said.
As the disease progresses, patients might lose the ability to perform familiar tasks — behavior sometimes mistaken as apathy — when executive function has deteriorated, Chiang said.
In the terminal stage, incontinence, swallowing difficulties and choking are common, with life expectancy sometimes limited to about six months, he said.
Chiang urged people concerned about dementia risk to monitor changes in memory, judgement and behavior and seek screening if needed, calling for earlier awareness and better care coordination to support both patients and caregivers.
Additional reporting by Liu Li-jen
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
DELAYED BUT DETERMINED: The president’s visit highlights Taiwan’s right to international engagement amid regional pressure from China President Willaim Lai (賴清德) yesterday arrived in Eswatini, more than a week after his planned visit to Taiwan’s sole African ally was suspended because of revoked overflight permits. “The visit, originally scheduled for April 22, was postponed due to unforeseen external factors,” Lai wrote on social media. “After several days of careful arrangements by our diplomatic and national security teams, we successfully arrived today.” Lai said he looked forward to further deepening Taiwan-Eswatini relations through closer cooperation in the economy, agriculture, culture and education, as well as advancing the nation’s international partnerships. The president was initially scheduled to arrive in time to celebrate
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) yesterday said the US faced a choice between an “impossible” military operation or a “bad deal” with Tehran, after US President Donald Trump disparaged Iran’s latest peace proposal. Negotiations between the two countries have been deadlocked since a ceasefire came into effect on April 8, with only one round of direct peace talks held so far. Iran’s Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported that Tehran had submitted a 14-point proposal to mediator Pakistan, but Trump was quick to cast doubt on it. “I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but
RSS