An event to officially commence work on the German National Dementia strategy has taken place, with stakeholders meeting for officially the participating actors officially started their work on Monday. Following the announcement by Federal Minister of Family Affairs Franziska Giffey and Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn in September 2018, four working groups will develop the content of the National Dementia Strategy throughout 2019.
The topics of the working groups build on the fields of action of the Alliance for People with Dementia, which was initiated in 2012 as part of the demographic strategy of the Federal Government. In addition to the ministries leading the work (Ministry for family, senior citizens, women and youth, and the Ministry for health), the German Alzheimer's Association (DAlzG) is co-chairing the steering group. Other stakeholders involved in the work will include other ministries, federal states, civil society, scientists, service providers and social security.
Monika Kaus, Chair of DAlzG said: "People with dementia and their relatives need the support of all stakeholders in the field of dementia, even after the end of the work of the Alliance. We welcome the activities of the federal ministries to develop and implement further goals together with a National Dementia Strategy in the future as well. However, resources must be provided for this."
The DAlzG Advisory Board "Living with Dementia", which consists of people with dementia, was able to formulate its expectations in a workshop held in advance of the kick-off meeting. The board suggested a number of topics for consideration, including:
-
Requests for social participation.
-
Mobility.
-
Support for relatives.
-
The desire for assistants to help with the diagnosis.
The office of the National Dementia Strategy is based at the German Center for Gerontology (DZA).
