The Ministry of Health and Welfare, Korea was part of the 2nd National Dementia Management Committee that was held on October 29 to discuss measures to reinforce national responsibility on dementia and review the progress of research and development project on dementia.

On that day, the National Dementia Management Committee discussed following items-

Abolishing Restriction on Using Dementia Shelter at Dementia Center and Extending Service Hours

Currently, dementia patients are allowed to use Dementia Shelter’s cognitive rehabilitation program for 3 hours a day and up to 6 months before getting a cognitive support grade for a long-term care program.

Starting from the next year, the restriction on Dementia Shelter will be abolished and recipients of cognitive support will be able to use the shelter. Also, service hour will be extended from 3 hours to up to 7 hours.

Day/Night Care Center’s Short-Term Care Service on Dementia Patients

When families caring dementia patients at home have urgent matters, only 160 short-term care centers can take care of dementia patients with restricted mobility during the night time.

Dementia patients will be able to use Day/Night Care Center’s short-term care service up to 9 days per month.

Increasing Construction Support and Easing Installation Standard for Facilities Specialized in Dementia Patients

The Committee reviewed the current status of expanding the facilities specialized for dementia patients and future action plans.

As of late September, 93 additional facilities are under construction.

To support local governments to expand facilities for dementia patients, financial subsidies for construction will be raised and installation standards for national nursing facilities will be eased starting from January, 2020.

Medium and Long-Term Research on National Level Starting from 2020 for Overcoming Dementia

The Committee discussed a research and development project for dementia.

198.7 billion won will be invested in R&D projects for nine years starting from 2020. In 2020, 5.9 billion won will be invested in 23 research projects (for six months).

Research and development projects for overcoming dementia is composed of three projects and 14 technology fields for finding and researching causes and pathogenesis, developing prediction technologies and diagnostics, and developing prevention and treatment technologies.

Vice Minister Kim, Gang-lip, President of the National Dementia Management Committee, emphasized that “We will reinforce tasks for national responsibility on dementia from a perspective of people in need to relieve people’s difficulties from dementia and reduce social expenses”.