Current status of and challenges for dementia in Japan

With an increase in the elderly population in Japan, the number of elderly with dementia increases each year. There were about 1.26 million elderly people with dementia in 1995. Dementia is untreatable, requiring protracted care. Enhancing and improving the social services for the demented elderly are strongly recommended. The available social services for the elderly with dementia in Japan are measures for health and institutional care. In the former, there are consultations, guidance services and welfare services (home help services, day services, short stay services). The latter mainly consists of mental hospitals, hospitals for the elderly, health facilities for the elderly and special nursing homes for the elderly. As future challenges to improve measures for the demented elderly, the following measures must be offered to demented elderly: (i) urgent, quantitative improvements in social services; (ii) establishing a comprehensive service system in the community; (iii) clarifying the concept of role sharing and closer cooperation among hospitals and institutions; (iv) training human resources in the fields of health medical care and welfare to give expertise and skill; (v) improvement of the system for dementia research; and (vi) securing and training volunteers for home care.