Dementia: national health priority

Dementia has been added to the list of national health priority areas following a meeting of federal and state health ministers in Sydney late last week.

The first priority areas, set down in 1996, were cardiovascular health, cancer control, injury prevention and control, and mental health.

Diabetes was added in 1997, followed by asthma in 1999, arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions in 2002 and obesity in 2008.

The inclusion of dementia as a national health priority would “focus attention and drive collaborative efforts aimed at tackling dementia at national, state and territory and local government levels,” the ministers said in a joint statement on Friday.

Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Mark Butler, said the federal government expected dementia spending to top $80 billion by 2062/63.

“But early diagnosis has been shown to have significant potential benefits for both the person with dementia and their carers and family, including improvements to quality of life and reducing care burden,” he said.

The federal government’s Living Longer. Living Better package had a significant focus on dementia with $268 million to be invested to tackle the epidemic.

“We’re introducing a new Dementia Supplement in home and residential care, improving hospital and primary care for people with dementia and putting a big effort into reducing the time between symptoms and diagnosis,” Mr Butler said.

Alzheimer’s Australia WA congratulated the federal government’s decision by the Australian Health Minister’s Advisory Committee to make dementia a National Health Priority Area.

Alzheimer’s Australia WA chief executive, Frank Schaper, said the decision was a major breakthrough, and one that would ensure dementia was treated in the same way as Australia’s other major health priorities.

“Until now, dementia has been regarded as an older person’s disease and as a natural part of ageing, which it isn’t,” Mr Schaper said.

He added the decision reflected the first time Australia had an opportunity to address “key failures” in the health system, such as access to timely diagnosis, quality of care in hospitals and raising community awareness about risk reduction strategies for dementia.