POLICY WATCH
Czech Republic launches its second national action plan on dementia In this article, the Coordinator for the Czech Republic’s new National Action Plan for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Illnesses 2020–2030, Markéta Švejdová Jandová, explains some of the key points in the new Plan. In the second part of the article we hear from Martina Mátlová, the Director of the Czech Alzheimer Society, about her organisation’s reaction to the new Plan. Markéta Švejdová Jandová
On 12 April 2021, the government of the Czech Republic approved the National Action Plan for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Illnesses 2020– 2030. The Plan was developed according to the recommendations of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Towards a dementia plan: a WHO guide. The content, identified through a situational analysis and debated by a broad stakeholder platform, reflects the needs of people living with dementia and their caregivers, as well as professional care providers.
Importantly, the Plan was developed in cooperation of two ministries, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Labor Social Affairs, to bridge existing barriers between health and social services. Beside national experts, we built on experiences and feedback provided by our colleagues during meetings organised by the WHO and Alzheimer Europe. Situational analysis A situational analysis was developed using the WHO’s Global Dementia Observatory instrument. It revealed that, according to data from Czech healthcare registers, 102,000 people were living with an official dementia diagnosis in the country in 2017. Epidemiological models estimate that the true prevalence was about 142,000 people showing that a diagnosis gap exists and needs to be addressed.
The Czech National Action Plan on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Illnesses runs from 2020–2030
20 Dementia in Europe
Moreover, diagnosis seems to be made only in the later stage of the disease, as only 45% of people with dementia survive more than one year and 16% more than five years from the point of diagnosis. This finding goes hand in hand with the fact that the network of post-diagnostic support and services enabling people with dementia to live at home as long as possible, are not well developed in the country. At the same time, the social care system is generally overwhelmed in relation to nursing home applications; in 2016, there were a total of 62,000 beds in nursing
homes and about 20,000 applications which were not granted due to the limited capacity. Strategic objectives The Plan reacts to the situational analysis by setting five strategic objectives: 1. Developing interdisciplinary recommendations and strengthening the network of health and social services accordingly 2. Providing appropriate education to both professional and informal caregivers 3. Setting a system of continuous epidemiologic surveillance and research agenda 4. Increasing dementia awareness and promoting prevention 5. Better protecting rights of people living with dementia. These objectives will be achieved through approximately fifty specific activities implemented in this decade. COVID-19 delays Although the approval of the Plan was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the implementation of some of the projects has already started or are currently being prepared. Examples include the national adaptation of the iSupport tool that helps informal caregivers, development of the prevention strategy
