What is needed for the success of national responsibility for dementia

ABSTRACT

Dementia is a chronic, disabling illness which is most feared by elderly people. Dementia causes heavy caregiver burden on the family. Dementia also imposes much burden on the society, making it one of the major public health problem in many countries. Actually, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recommended to pose a priority to dementia management as a public health task. As the Korean population is rapidly aging, there is a rapid increase of people with dementia in Korea. In Korea, the people with dementia doubles every 15 years, and the economic burden of care for dementia doubles every 10 years. To cope with this rapidly increasing burden of dementia, Korean government has launched plan for national responsibility for dementia. The plan is composed of distributing dementia reassuring center nationwide, setting up dementia reassuring hospital, and decreasing the burden of paid money for medical treatment and long-term care for dementia. The major hurdles in implementing the plan and the strategies to overcome such hurdles by public-private collaboration are suggested.