Safety net for patients with dementia
A new law is being drafted that will allow dementia patients to determine who will represent them in matters of care and treatment before the disease progresses. The draft on the treatment of dementia and Alzheimer’s, which is being prepared by the Health Ministry, also provides for the provision of work facilities for caregivers.
“There are thousands of cases of people with dementia who are at the mercy of their illness. Without a will, they become subject to abuse and exploitation,” Health Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis said on Monday at a press conference to present the main axes of the draft law, adding that what will change is that the patients themselves will be able, at a stage of the condition when they have legal capacity, to determine their care and treatment and what services they wish to receive. Advance care and treatment directives will be drafted after a doctor and notary have been informed.
Johns Hopkins University professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences researcher and head of the National Initiative Against Alzheimer’s Disease Constantine G. Lyketsos cited the beneficial outcomes in the state of Maryland with the implementation of such initiatives that began 15 years ago. He said they helped significantly improve the clinical management of dementia, a condition he described as an “expected pandemic” due to the aging population in the state.
In Greece 10% of the population is “involved” in dementia: About half a million people suffer from dementia or mild cognitive impairment, with one to two, and sometimes three, informal carers for every sufferer, according to figures presented by Chrysochoidis, Lyketsos and neurologist-psychiatrist Paraskevi Sakka, head of the National Alzheimer’s Observatory.
“These numbers will increase rapidly and our country must prepare itself,” said Lykesos.
The draft law provides for the establishment of a national council on dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, which will monitor the implementation of the Action Plan for Dementia Prevention, Treatment and Research, and update it as necessary.
