Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Aug 8:11:1167856.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1167856. eCollection 2023.

Dementia care in gerontological social work: emerging issues and challenges in Saudi Arabia

Affiliations
Review

Dementia care in gerontological social work: emerging issues and challenges in Saudi Arabia

Sultan Ali Shubair. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

The issues and challenges in the current state of gerontological social work policy, practice, and education related to dementia care in Saudi Arabia are discussed in this article. The following primary issues were explored: (1) the impact of the biomedical model's global dominance on gerontological social work policy and research for dementia care and health promotion; (2) the position of the older adults in Middle Eastern nations and its connection to the lack of gerontological social work policies, programs, and care services for older adults with dementia and their family caregivers; (3) the effect of the profession of social work's lack of recognition on the potential evolution of gerontological social work practice in dementia care; (4) the state of dementia patients' rights, dementia patients' safety, and dementia patients' rights to self-determination on the gerontological social work support provided for older adults with dementia; (5) the unequal distribution of dementia care resources and gerontological social work; and (6) the social work education programs' inability to supply the market with sufficient number of skilled gerontological social workers and its effect on the advancement of dementia care in gerontological social work practice. Approaches for advancing policy, practice, and education are provided to support the evolution of gerontological social work in dementia care in the region.

Keywords: Saudi Arabia; care challenges; dementia; older adults; social work in gerontology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

References

    1. General Authority of Statistics (2022). Population by Detailed Age. Available at: https://portal.saudicensus.sa/portal/public/1/15/100647?type=TABLE (Accessed July 5, 2023).
    1. Abusaaq H. I. (2015). SAMA Working Paper: Population Aging in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency. Available at: https://www.sama.gov.sa/en-US/EconomicResearch/WorkingPapers/population%... (Accessed July 9, 2023).
    1. 2022 Alzheimer's disease facts and figures. Alzheimers Dement. (2022) 18:700–89. doi: 10.1002/alz.12638 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Albugami M, Qadi N, Almugbel F, Mohammed A, Alttas A, Elamin A, et al. . The demographic characteristics and the risk factors of dementia in Saudi elderly. Hypertension. (2018) 314:71–53. doi: 10.11648/j.ajpn.20180601.11 - DOI
    1. Ogunniyi A, Daif AK, Al-Rajeh S, AbdulJabbar M, Al-Tahan AR, Al-Bunyan M, et al. . Dementia in Saudi Arabia: experience from a university hospital. Acta Neurol Scand. (1998) 98:116–20. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0404.1998.tb01729.x, PMID: - DOI - PubMed