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).

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. 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:

- The promotion of appropriate and adequate interventions to combat against stigma

- The protection and guarantee of rights

- Updated knowledge

- Coordination of activities.

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.

Mario Possenti

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.

Next steps

Now that the funds are available, it is the task of the Ministry of Health, having heard the opinion of the Permanent Table on Dementia – of which FAI is a member – to provide an indication on how to distribute the funds according to the objectives of the National Dementia Plan. Certainly, one of the priorities will be to provide Italian regions with the necessary tools to carry out research and pilots aimed at creating national best practices. The topics will range from the enhancement of early diagnosis to the spread of telemedicine interventions, as well as psycho-educational, cognitive and psychosocial treatments.

Another important aspect that will find space in the initiatives financed by the National Dementia Plan, is to address concerns regarding training programmes to strengthen specific knowledge and skills of all health, socio-health and social figures involved in the diagnosis and care of people with dementia.

Thanks to this first funding, the Permanent Table on Dementia will also be able to begin work on an update of the National Dementia Plan, in order to keep up with the needs of 1.2 million people living with dementia in Italy.

This moment is crucial because there is the will to transform the objectives of the Plan into concrete actions, however, given the numbers of people with dementia, it is difficult to think that a fund of EUR 15 million over three years can meet all the needs of the entire country. For this reason, FAI believes that this fund represents only the first step to be able to initiate interventions that cannot be postponed and it is already working to ensure greater dedicated funding.

As stated by FAI’s President, Gabriella Salvini Porro: “We know that the financing of the National Dementia Plan is not an end point but the beginning of a path that will not be easy and that involves a great deal of work in identifying the correct way to allocate economic resources. However, an important step has been taken and now more than ever it is essential that our institutions demonstrate unity and give a concrete signal, listening to the voice of people with dementia.”

Gabriella Salvini Porro, President, Federazione Alzheimer Italia