POLICY WATCH
Italian Government commits to providing funding for its national dementia plan In this article, Mario Possenti, Secretary General, Federazione Alzheimer Italia (FAI), highlights the recent commitment from the Italian Government to provide funding for the country’s National Dementia Plan, which was first launched in 2014, as well as the campaigning work which led to this point. In December 2020, the Italian Parliament approved, within the 2021 budget law, a fund of EUR 15 million over three years for the National Dementia Plan. The amendment included in the budget law was inspired by the bill of Senator Barbara Guidolin written with the collaboration of Federazione Alzheimer Italia (FAI).
The “National Dementia Plan – Strategies for the promotion and improvement of the quality and appropriateness of care interventions in the dementia sector” was created with the objective of providing strategic indicators for the integrated management of dementia:
This is a decisive step forward in protecting the rights of people with dementia and their families and in improving their quality of life: an objective for which FAI has been committed for over 25 years.
y The promotion of appropriate and adequate interventions to combat against stigma y The protection and guarantee of rights y Updated knowledge y Coordination of activities.
Mario Possenti
Approved in 2014, it has never been made fully operational due to the lack of economic resources necessary for the realisations and implementation of its objectives. FAI campaigns In recent years, FAI has carried out numerous advocacy actions so that the National Dementia Plan does not remain solely full of good intentions but is transformed into concrete actions and meaningful support for people with dementia and their families. Among the various actions taken, one proved to be particularly significant: at the end of 2018, a petition was launched on “change.org” to ask the Minister of Health to allocate funds to the National Dementia Plan. In a few days, the petition collected over 130,000 signatures, demonstrating how necessary and urgent action was. This initiative allowed the public to become aware of the fact that dementia was not adequately supported as a political priority but also created direct links with parliamentarians who have shown themselves to be proactive in supporting the objective of funding the National Dementia Plan. At the same time, local associations and dementia-friendly communities have worked hard to contact local representatives to communicate the urgency and importance of a fund that can no longer be deferred. It was the demonstration that a public initiative of great importance can actually create the conditions to influence the political agenda but even more, the ability to bring stakeholders together and propose a common strategy was fundamental.
The petition calling for funding for the nation dementia plan gained over 130,000 signatures
28 Dementia in Europe
