Basic Plan for Promoting Dementia Care

Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet approved the basic plan of policies for dealing with dementia which has been prevalent to aged people in Japan. While the people socially recognized that the patients of dementia is mostly unable to be involved in social activities, the plan tries to pave the way for them to take various roles in the communities they belong to. The government of Japan introduces a concept that everyone can someday be a patient of dementia. 

As average lifespan of the Japanese is prolonged, the patients of dementia increased these years. According to the white paper on aged society in 2024, the patients of dementia among the people at the age of 65 or older increased as many as 4.43 million in 2022, occupying 12.3 percent to all. The patients of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) amounted to 5.58 million (15.5 percent). The government anticipates that the number of patients of dementia will increase to 5.84 million (14.9 percent) in 2040, as MCI patients will rise to 6.12 million (15.6 percent).

 

The government legislated Basic Act on Dementia in 2024. The law determines that the patients of dementia need to live their life at their disposal, as the Constitution of Japan guarantees every individual to exercise basic human rights. The law requires the government to remove all the barriers against safety life of the patients, including eliminating discrimination on dementia among the people.

 

Formulating a basic plan is one of those requirements of the law. The plan laid out four points to aim at: promotion of new concept of dementia, spending safe life in local community, respecting the will of each patient and developing advanced knowledge and technology. “Everyone needs to recognize him/herself as possible patient in the future,” says the basic plan to build an inclusive society.

 

The plan raised twelve measures to promote. To remove barriers in social life of patients of dementia, the plan recommends to introduce barrier-free transportation or goods and services convenient for the patients. To increase opportunities for the patients to participate in various social activities, the plan offers coordination of meetings for the patients to discuss each other or consultative services.

 

The plan recommends coordination between local government and medical staffs. Based on the notion that the patients hope to stay in their local community as much as they can, the national government requires the local governments to coordinate integrated measures to take care of the patients. Networks of local government, medical institution and nursery facility will work together for supporting ordinary life of the patients.

 

Dementia of young people is another point to deal with. It is important to support them with consultation for their health or job. Enhancing human resource for the consultation should be the key. Labor shortage is one of the serious problem in Japanese economy. Participation of the patients to social activities may contribute to improve the situation of employment in business sector.

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