Groups Advocate for New Legislation to Manage Dementia
Title: Calls for Dementia Basic Law
REPORTER:
The Taiwan Alzheimer’s Disease Association is calling for a law that would lay out national responsibility for people with dementia—and mechanisms for different ministries to work together to meet that responsibility.
Taiwan now has more than 400,000 residents with dementia, partly due to its rapidly aging population. There has been some progress on a new law to help Taiwan manage this wave of people with dementia. But there are still over a dozen competing versions of the bill. They come amid a growing need for rules on issues like risk factor management when new drugs come out. As lawmakers debate the best course of action, groups concerned with dementia say the time for a law is now.
Hsu Wen-chun (TAIWAN ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE ASSOC.):
What we see in the policy outline is that it’s not proceeding on schedule. If we have a legal basis we can delineate what needs to be done each year.
REPORTER:
As lawmakers debate the best course of action, the Cabinet is also still considering a possible new law covering dementia—and whether it’s necessary.
