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.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
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More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
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