Dementia care in Taiwan during COVID‐19

Abstract

BackgroundTaiwan has been bolstering dementia care policy with the concern of reaching the ‘super‐aging’ mark by 2025. Taiwan’s success in containing the COVID‐19 pandemic involves focused, timely interventions in preventive measures, including policies targeting people living with dementia and their caregivers. This review presents key dementia policy interventions achieved during the pandemic.MethodA scoping review of published academic, media and grey literature was conducted. We extracted relevant information pertaining to dementia care during the COVID‐19 pandemic and summarized the data in a narrative format.ResultTaiwanese government has implemented a policy in April 2020 that restricted visitations to long‐term care facilities, which continues today. Since the start of the pandemic, one nurse and no individuals with dementia living in long‐term care facilities has been infected. A landmark decision was made in April 2020 to ban penalization of people with dementia for violation of the epidemic prevention regulation (e.g., wearing a mask) if they have documentation of disability. This was possible due to the strong, continued advocacy from the Taiwan Alzheimer’s Disease Association (TADA). TADA provided critical resources to the dementia community by releasing online videos to teach patients how to protect themselves and others during the pandemic, such as mask wearing and handwashing. TADA’s Reference Handbook of Dementia Care Responding to COVID‐19was well‐received by the Health Promotion Administration of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, who forwarded the handbook to all local governments and shared these videos on its national official website. There are government‐sponsored facilities across the districts of Taipei City that encourage people with dementia to participate in local activities during the pandemic.ConclusionIn Taiwan, national public health policies quickly came into place since the beginning of the pandemic to curb the spread of COVID‐19 infection in elderly care settings impacting dementia care. Patient advocacy groups have played an important role in providing resources and support to the dementia community. Taiwan’s recent demonstration of quick policy reactions and public‐private partnerships to protect people with dementia and their caregivers provide an effective dementia care model for future response measures.