This is because if families caring for patients suffer from various mental and economic difficulties, they can be exposed to various diseases including dementia.
The German federal government established a “national dementia strategy” in 2020 to expand support for families of dementia patients. Various pension premiums are provided to families caring for dementia patients, and if they are unable to work due to nursing care, the state also pays unemployment insurance premiums on their behalf. In addition, if a dementia patient is cared for at home, he or she can automatically subscribe to legal industrial accident insurance and receive various supports. Immediately after learning that a dementia patient has occurred in the family, he or she can take up to 10 days of emergency care leave and receive a care support allowance. When long-term care is required, up to six months of care leave or a reduction in working hours is guaranteed.
Sweden has shifted its “paradigm of dementia care” to share dementia care with not only families but also the state and local communities. A case in point is the “Dementia Group Home” system, in which professional nurses and nursing care workers manage small dementia groups of 5 to 10 people in a home-like atmosphere as much as possible. Seok Jae-eun, a professor of social welfare at Hallym University, said, “In Korea, communities should create a system to care for dementia patients with their families.”
Canada is strengthening customized education for families and medical professionals who take care of dementia patients. In particular, it is strengthening psychological support for families of dementia patients. “While Korea focuses on ‘patient care,’ Korea also pays attention to ‘awareness’ of patients and their families abroad,” said Kim Sang-yoon, a professor of neurology at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital. “For this change, social education and efforts to improve awareness should be made at the same time.”
In Japan, where the number of elderly people with dementia is at least 4.43 million as of 2022, the term has changed its negative image to “cognitive ID” since 2004 to change the wording to “foolish and stupid.” It highlights that it is a senile disease that anyone can get. Since January last year, the law on dementia and the Framework Act on Cognitive ID for the Realization of a Symbiotic Society has also been in effect.
In Japan, many say that the era of elderly caring for the elderly has arrived due to rapid aging. As a result, both couples have dementia, and the problem of patients caring for patients is also becoming serious. Accordingly, Japan has prepared a number of measures to prevent the elderly with dementia and their spouses from lack of physical activity and deepening depression.
A case in point is the “Orange Salon” at hundreds of locations across Japan. The purpose of the visit is to reduce the sense of isolation by allowing dementia elderly people to work as employees twice a month to have the experience of communicating with local residents. There is also a “cognitive call center” in which counselors who have completed dementia-related training consult with dementia patients and their families. Some regions are also holding “Dementia Family Nursing Class” to explain various information and support measures for dementia families three times.
SAM KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
