The German National Dementia Strategy

Abstract

English In 2019, key players from politics, society, social insurance providers, care and medicine initiated the process of developing the National Dementia Strategy under the leadership of the Federal Ministry of Health, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and the German Alzheimer's Association, and in 2020, the strategy was officially adopted. The National Dementia Strategy aims to improve the lives and care of people with dementia in Germany. To this end, four fields of action were defined, covering the areas of social participation, support and advice for people with dementia and their relatives, nursing and medical care, and research. A total of 27 goals with 162 concrete individual measures were formulated. An evaluation of the implementation is to take place in 2026. The breadth of the topics and also of the stakeholders involved are the the strengths of the dementia strategy. Unfortunately, there are no claims for improvement of inpatient geronto-psychiatric, neurological and geriatric care structures nor for adequate funding and integration of outpatient memory clinics into care. In connection with this, there is a conceptual lack of reference to the current medical understanding of dementia as a consequence of specific brain diseases with preclinical and mildly symptomatic courses before the dementia stage as well as to biomarker-based early diagnostics and to future molecular-specific disease-modifying treatments. Furthermore, there is a lack of a package of measures to exploit prevention potentials by reduction of risk factors for dementia at the population levels. Irrespective of this, the National Dementia Strategy is of great importance for patients and their caregivers. It can sustainably improve the living situation of people with dementia in Germany.