Last year, a fifth of the population aged 65 or over in Slovenia lived with dementia, and a good 5% were over 80 years old. In 2030, according to the forecasts of the profession, a quarter of the population aged 65 and almost 7% over the age of 80 will be faced with dementia.
Healthcare, doctors and their interventions are very important, but they are quite limited, as a person with dementia faces the most problems in their everyday life, she emphasized at a press conference before World Alzheimer’s Day Nadja Čobal from the Ministry of Health. Here, according to her observations, it is very obvious that even help for the relatives of the sick is not yet sufficiently organized in Slovenia.
In the world, life expectancy is increasing, which is the reason for an ever-increasing number of elderly people, especially those over 65, and the incidence of dementia increases with age. The same applies to Slovenia, she emphasized Mercedes Lovrečič from the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ). In 2021, a fifth of the population aged 65 or over in Slovenia lived with dementia, and a good five percent were over 80 years old. In 2030, according to the forecasts of the profession, a quarter of the population aged 65 and almost seven percent over the age of 80 will be faced with dementia.
What does this year’s dementia management strategy bring?
In the new strategy in the field of dementia in Slovenia, which the government adopted at the beginning of July, according to Čobalova, ten goals are listed, which follow the goals of the World Health Organization. Among other things, the implementation of preventive measures to prevent the development of diseases, early diagnosis and treatment, and more efficient implementation of services and management of personnel and financial resources.
The goal of the strategy is also the introduction and use of modern information and communication technologies for treating and supporting people with dementia to live as independently as possible in their home environment, reducing the stigmatization of the disease, educating all professional groups about interaction with dementia and promoting modern research.
It also plans several innovations regarding the network of dementia management service providers, the collection and processing of dementia data, and the introduction of a special register which, in addition to health data, will also contain data from the field of social care and other data for effective planning and implementation of dementia management measures . The strategy also plans to establish a national center for dementia, which will take care of professional development in the field of dementia in Slovenia and strive for appropriate treatment of people with dementia during epidemics and other emergency situations, Čobalova pointed out.
In the field of social care, the strategy aims primarily to strengthen the services that are currently available, with the aim of ensuring people with dementia that homes for the elderly are not the one and only choice, emphasized Janja Romih from the Ministry for a Solidarity Future.
One of the very important customized forms of services provided for in the strategy is therefore day care. This enables relatives of people with dementia to be at least somewhat relieved, temporary accommodation for people with dementia and help at home, emphasized Romih.
The president of the association Spominčica – Alzheimer Slovenija also warned that the least progress in the fight against dementia is in the field of home help. Štefanija Lukič Villain.
Source: Rtvslo
