Making dementia a public policy issue

Rosemary V Calder
Aged Services Redevelopment, Department of Human Services, VIC

PP: 248 - 257

Abstract

Dementia has become recognised as a significant aged care issue in the past two decades with the focus in Australia being primarily on the role and quality of long-term institutional and community care for people with dementia and their carers. A growing emphasis has been placed on the burden of care for relatives, who are most commonly elderly spouses with or without the support of a significant adult child.

Policy initiatives and service developments to date have focussed on the management of the impact of the condition on the person with dementia and on their carers, both familial and professional. Recent advances in both biomedical research and pharmacology give rise to the potential for prevention of some dementias and for deferment or amelioration of others. Public policy therefore needs to take a public health approach while maintaining the emphasis on effective long-term care and carer support strategies.

Keywords

dementia, public policy, quality care, health, carer support strategies

View references

References

Australian Bureau of Statistics (1998) Australian demographic statistics (Catalogue No. 3101.0). Canberra: Commonwealth Government Printer.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (1999) Disability, ageing and carers Australia, 1988: Summary of findings (Catalogue No. 4430.0). Canberra: Commonwealth Government Printer.

Department of Human Services (1995) Dementia care in Victoria: Building a pathway to excellence (Interim Report of the Ministerial Task Force on Dementia, 1995). Melbourne: DHS.

Department of Human Services, Aged, Community, and Mental Health Division (1997) Dementia care in Victoria: Building a pathway to excellence (Final Report of the Ministerial Task Force on Dementia, 1997). Melbourne: DHS.

Department of Human Services, Aged, Community, and Mental Health Division (1997) Dementia care in Victoria: A public health approach (Report of Expert Working Party to provide the Ministerial Task Force on Dementia with advice. Companion paper to the Final Report of the Task Force). Melbourne: DHS.

Department of Human Services, Public Health and Development Division (1999) Mortality (Victorian Burden of Disease Study, Vol 3). Melbourne: DHS.

Jorm AF, Korten AE & Henderson AS (1987) The prevalence of dementia: A quantitative integration of the literature. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 16: 465-479.

Marshall M (1999) What do service planners and policy-makers need from research? International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 14: 18-96.

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