The Ministry of Health and Welfare yesterday said it is planning to set up 72 community dementia care centers in accordance with its policy document Taiwan Dementia Policy: A Framework for Prevention and Care 2.0.
The Taiwan Alzheimer Disease Association yesterday on the first day of World Alzheimer’s Month held its annual academic conference in Taipei, with Dementia Alliance International chairperson Kate Swaffer delivering a keynote speach.
According to alliance data, about 9.9 million people worldwide are diagnosed with dementia each year.
A study commissioned by the ministry between 2011 and 2013 said that more than 260,000 people in Taiwan have dementia.
The National Development Council has predicted that the number will continue to increase, doubling to about 550,000 people by 2036.
“As one of the estimated 50 billion people in the world living with dementia, my mission has become to ensure people with dementia are not told to go home and prepare to die, but are supported to live positively,” said Swaffer, who was diagnosed with the condition at age 49.
“It is imperative that we focus on the human rights of people with dementia and their families,” she said, adding that governments, healthcare practitioners and communities should not just provide care for people with dementia, but also help increase their quality of life and reduce stigma, shame and discrimination.
Citing her own experience of having her driver’s license revoked, and healthcare practitioners advising her to quit her job and prepare for long-term care at a specialized care center, Swaffer said that those who advised her might have had good intentions, but they showed a common bias, assuming that people with dementia cannot make decisions on their own.
Taiwan has made efforts to protect the rights of people with dementia and the ministry launched its dementia policy in December last year, but dementia policies must be made in consideration of patients’ abilities and rights, helping them live positively and contribute to the society, she said.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) said the Taiwan Dementia Policy 2.0 would reference the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to establish proper action plans.
The ministry is also planning to establish 72 dementia care centers so that people in early stages of dementia can receive care and counseling services in their communities, he said.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
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