German Health Ministry announces support to European Dementia Ethics Network
Wednesday 23 September 2009
At a meeting of the European Dementia Ethics Network held in Berlin on 23 September 2009, Ulla Schmidt, Federal Minister for Health announced the support of her ministry to this initiative and the allocation of a grant of €60,000. Minister Schmidt stressed: “In a social Europe, we need common answers and solutions to improve the situation of people wth dementia and their carers. The ethical approaches towards people with dementia will be supported through this project and the findings will be a good building block for improving care in Germany and promoting the necessary societal debate on the future of care.”
The members of the network’s steering committee welcomed this support and identified the key priorities for the network in the coming months:
- Establishmentof a web presence on the project,
- Setting up of an Advisory Board
- Identification of national ethics correspondents
- Carrying out a literature review of the ethical issues linked to the use of assistive technologies.
- Organisation of a meeting of the Advisory Board and the working group on assistive technologies in 2009.
The participants of the meeting were: Prof François Blanchard (University of Reims and Coordinator of the French Ethics Network), Christian Berringer (German Ministry of Health), Jean Georges (Alzheimer Europe), Dianne Gove (Project Manager, Alzheimer Europe), Sabine Jansen (German Alzheimer Association), Cornelia Reitberger (German Ministry of Health), Matthias von Schwanenflügel (German Ministry of Health) and Sigurd Sparr (Norwegian Alzheimer Association).