ROMA (ITALPRESS) – “The update of the National Dementia Plan is part of a precise choice of the government: to fill the delays accumulated over time and to return to the National Health Service tools that allow us to plan ahead with the times. A Plan is not a document of principles: it is used to guide decisions, connect the national level to the territories, produce concrete and recognizable answers”. Thus the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci on the occasion of the presentation of the new National Dementia Plan 2027-2031 (PND), which took place in recent days at the Ministry of Health as part of the World Day of Alzheimer.
“The progressive ageing of the population, especially in Italy, makes it increasingly urgent to give answers that do not only look to today, but especially to the medium and long term,” the Minister added. In Italy it is estimated about 1 million and 200 thousand people with dementia, over half of Alzheimer’s, and about 900 thousand with mild neurocognitive disorder. “Behind numbers there are always people, families who have health, welfare, social needs, who ask us for continuity, competence, closeness. This even more happens when we talk about dementia,” continued Schillaci, announcing that the Ministry is working on “a financing proposal, within the next budgetary law, to further strengthen the activities of prevention, diagnosis, treatment and support for people with dementia and their caregiver”. Resources that will be added to those provided for by the Fund dedicated to dementia, financed with 35 million euros for the three-year period 2024-2026, and those of the National Health Fund.
The Plan, which must be brought into the Unified Conference, has been elaborated by the Permanent Table on Dementia, in collaboration with the Observatory dementia of the Higher Institute of Health, the Regions and autonomous Provinces, the Associations of Family, the scientific societies and the experts of the field. The document aims to strengthen the ability of the system to respond to the needs of people with dementia and their families, favouring a more structured and adequate takeover in the different stages of the disease. PND defines clear objectives, measurable indicators and identifies seven areas of action: to make dementia a public health priority, setting it up in all national and regional sociosanitary policies; to promote knowledge and public attention, to create an inclusive and friendly social context; to act on changing factors to reduce the risk; to build integrated health and social support systems, able to take care of the people involved in the diagnosis to the end of life, always.
Objectives, actions and indicators have been defined for each area, which will enable the monitoring of the implementation of the Plan and the evaluation of the results achieved. The PND provides, in total, 43 national objectives, 58 actions for their achievement and 64 indicators for the evaluation. Among the expected outcomes, with the adoption of the document, there is the strengthening of the network of services dedicated to diagnosis, treatment and support for people with dementia. The Plan aims, then, to ensure an appropriate and continuous takeover in all places of care (from domicile to facilities) through the strengthening of staff and the attention to the necessary aids to support the autonomy of the person, also providing specific and dedicated investments.
The PND recognises the fundamental role of caregiver and dedicates a specific line of intervention to their training and support. It further strengthens research efforts in the different areas of dementia, prevention and diagnosis to assist, rehabilitation, secondary and tertiary prevention, also through the enhancement of the experiences and projects developed in recent years.
(ITALPRESS).
