Introduction
On 12 March 2012, the Swiss Council of States (upper house of the federal Parliament) approved a series of proposals which effectively call upon the government to prepare a national dementia plan.
On 21 November 2013, the Swiss federal government and the country's 26 cantons adopted a national dementia plan for the years 2014-2017. Following an evaluation in 2016, the decision was taken to extend the strategy by two years.
Following the conclusion of the strategy in 2019, a Dementia Platform was established, aiming to continue the work started with the strategy and to facilitate the professional exchange between national actors, cantonal authorities and municipalities, the joint development of measures and their implementation in practice.
Outline of strategy
The strategy is outlined around four Action Areas:
- Health literacy, information and participation
- Needs-appropriate services
- Quality and professional skills
- Data and knowledge transfer.
A further nine specific objectives are articulated across the four Action Areas, with a number of projects outlined as a means to achieving these objectives.
Further information
Further information on dementia policy in Switzerland and the Dementia Platform is available at: https://www.admin.ch/gov/de/start/dokumentation/medienmitteilungen.msg-…
The Swiss National Dementia Strategy (in French), the evaluation (in French) and a summary of the strategy (in English), can be downloaded below.