World Dementia Council Calls For Quality Care and Support For People Living With Dementia World-Wide

In May 2017, the World Dementia Council (WDC) published a Statement on the importance of care and support for those affected by dementia and their families. The Global Care and Support Statement (“Global Care Statement”), created by WDC’s Care Global Team, has now been translated into eleven other languages with the help of Council members and associate members. The availability of the Global Care Statement in numerous languages will help increase the reach of the Global Care Statement and its Calls to Action. An announcement of the translations will be made in conjunction with the 12th Meeting of the Council (WDC12) in Tokyo, Japan on March 13-14, 2018.

The Global Care Statement stresses that everyone affected by dementia has a human right to receive the highest quality care and support possible; to be treated with dignity; and to be entitled to full and effective participation and inclusion in society. The Global Care Statement includes two Calls to Action designed to help ensure these rights, calling on all the world’s governments and governing bodies to adopt, implement, and ensure high-quality, person-centered care and support for people living with dementia; and for all health and social care systems to fund and provide access to high-quality, person-centered dementia care and support services.

The Global Care Statement also includes eight important Principles of High Quality Care and Support, including for individuals to receive a timely and accurate dementia diagnosis; for people living with dementia to be treated with dignity and respect; for communities to be inclusive of people living with dementia and encourage their engagement in the community; for dementia care to be person- and relationship-centered and based upon continuous assessment and individualised planning; and for people living with dementia and their care partners to be active participants in care planning and decision making. The principles also express the need for medical and care professionals to be knowledgeable of all aspects of dementia and to work across disciplines to ensure a holistic approach to disease management; and for care coordination and collaboration to occur between all care providers, including in monitoring and evaluating the care and support provided.

Speaking about the translations of the Global Care Statement, WDC’s outgoing Chair, Dr. Yves Joanette says: “WDC’s Global Care Statement is critically important in specifying what needs to be done to offer person-centered, high-quality care and support to everyone affected by dementia world-wide. We wish to acknowledge the support from our members, the World Young Leaders in Dementia (WYLD) and Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) for their help and support in translating these important Calls to Action and Principles of High Quality Care and Support.”

WDC’s Care Global Team lead and incoming Chair, Harry Johns adds: “We hope that governments, governing bodies, health and social care systems, care providers and communities in all parts of the world will adopt these urgent priorities and calls to action, to ensure that those living with dementia and their families are given the highest quality care and support possible to meet their needs.”

The English Global Care Statement and other available languages (Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish and Swedish) can be downloaded from the WDC Website: https://www.worlddementiacouncil.org/news/wdc-publishes-translations-global-care-statement