Israel National Plan on Dementia
Introduction
Between 2012-2013, an inter-disciplinary group of experts, including EMDA (the Israeli Dementia Association), worked to formulate recommendations for a National Plan for Addressing Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Types of Dementia.
The group's recommendations were presented to the Israeli Parliament Health and Welfare Committee, where they were adopted, and subsequently approved by the Director General of the Ministry of Health as a basis for the national plan. In September 2013, the Ministry of Health officially took the lead in implementing the National Plan for Addressing Alzheimer's disease and other dementias
Outline of strategy
The main actions of the plan are grouped under a number of aims which were identified as being important for the health and wellbeing of people with dementia and their carers:
- Raising public awareness of dementia and dispelling the associated stigma
- Improving the array of community health services offered to provide comprehensive care at every stage of the illness
- Improving the array of community social services (such as the Long-Term Care Insurance Law and daycare centers)
- Developing responses to support family caregivers directly
- Adapting the array of long-term institutional services in view of the changing needs
- Developing and expanding resources to train manpower in the community and in hospitals
- Promoting critical research to support policy planning and service development.
Involving people with dementia
Further information on the strategy and its implementation can be found at: https://www.health.gov.il/English/Topics/SeniorHealth/DEMENTIA/Pages/National_program.aspx
The full plan (in Hebrew) and a summary of the National Plan in English can be downloaded below.