Health Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis described dementia as an expected national pandemic, presenting today at a press conference at the Ministry of Health, the national action plan for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, the total cost of which reaches 3 billion euros in our country annually and is expected to double by 2050.

The bill, which will be submitted for public consultation in the coming days, resolves many ethical and legal issues related to sufferers as well as their caregivers. “The patients themselves will choose in advance and since they have this possibility and not the court, about who will represent them when their disease progresses and they lose this possibility”, said the Minister of Health Michalis Chrysochoidis, speaking about the provision of the bill that concerns the attorney of care and care when the patient still has legal capacity, to appoint a natural person to represent him.

In fact, the new draft law, in another provision, provides for a regular assessment of the ability to drive in people with dementia, and whether or not they will retain their license.

As the Minister of Health pointed out, the Greek Action Plan for dementia and Alzheimer’s diseasebased on 7 axeswhich are the registration and classification of people with dementia in Greece, prevention – information and public awareness, support for carers of people with dementia, treatment of dementia, legislation – rights of people with dementia and their carers, dementia research and education in dementia.

With the proposed draft law the National Council for Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease is established in the Ministry of Healthwith the participation of representatives from the Ministry of Health, Social Cohesion and Family, Labor and Social Security and National Economy and Finance and with the main purpose of monitoring the implementation of the Greek Action Plan for Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

With the authorizing provisions of the draft law, it is sought to issue joint ministerial decisions for the improving the living conditions of patients and their informal caregivers in terms of finances, working conditions, etc., as M. Chrysochoidis pointed out.

In a live connection during the press conference, John’s Hopkins Professor Constantinos Lyketsos, spoke about the results of the policies in countries that have been implemented, while stressing that the half a million Greeks who currently suffer from some form of dementia, will significantly increase the immediately following years.

Commenting on the draft law, the president of the National Dementia Observatory, Paraskevi Sakka, said that a plan that existed 2-3 years ago, but remained inactive due to the pandemic, is now being implemented. She emphasized that the new legislative effort has many provisions for the freedom of expression and movement of the sufferers and will significantly contribute to the improvement of daily life, both for themselves and their caregivers.

The Dementia Plan points out that although people with dementia are certainly subject to all the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution and international law, it turns out that this general recognition is not enough because of the specificity of an illness that shrinks the person’s mental abilities , with the result that the risk of uncontrolled practical abrogation of these rights is constantly present. “The phenomena of arbitrary heterodetermination of patients and unjustified restrictions imposed on them by their relatives, paid assistants, possibly also health professionals are common. These phenomena, which go as far as the abuse of patients, tend to be silenced, as the interested parties themselves do not have the opportunity to be “heard”” concluded the Minister of Health in his initial statement.