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Review
. 2018 Jun 30;21(2):173-209.
doi: 10.5770/cgj.21.299. eCollection 2018 Jun.

National Dementia Strategies: What Should Canada Learn?

Selina Chow  1 , Ronald Chow  1 , Angela Wan  1 , Helen R Lam  1 , Kate Taylor  1 , Katija Bonin  1 , Leigha Rowbottom  1 , Henry Lam  1 , Carlo DeAngelis  1 , Nathan Herrmann  1
Affiliations
Review

National Dementia Strategies: What Should Canada Learn?

Selina Chow et al. Can Geriatr J. .

Abstract

Background: In order to provide appropriate care for the aging population, many countries are adopting a National Dementia Strategy (NDS). On June 22, 2017, Canada announced it will become the 30th country to launch a NDS. In light of this announcement and as Canada prepares to develop its own NDS, we conducted this review to examine and compare the NDSs of the other previous 29 countries with Canadian government's policies to date.

Methods: NDSs were compared according to their major priorities. The primary endpoints were the framework conditions and key actions outlined in the strategies. Secondary endpoints included the years active, involvement of stakeholders, funding, and implementation.

Results: We were able to review and compare 25 of the 29 published NDSs. While the NDSs of each country varied, several major priorities were common among the strategies-increasing awareness of dementia, reducing its stigma, identifying support services, improving the quality of care, as well as improving training and education and promoting research.

Conclusions: This review comprehensively lists and compares the NDSs of different countries. The results should be of great interest to policy-makers, health-care professionals and other key stakeholders involved in developing Canada's forthcoming NDS. We hope that policy-makers in Canada can review other NDSs, learn from their example, and develop an effective NDS for our country.

Keywords: dementia; government; national dementia strategy; policy.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST DISCLOSURES Unrelated to the current study, Dr. Herrmann has received research funding from Lundbeck, Roche and Axovant and consultation fees from Merck, Lilly, Astellas and Mediti. The authors declare that no conflicts of interest exist.

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