Tackle dementia now! A message to decision makers

There’s a lot happening for both Alzheimers NZ and the wider sector so it’s timely for me to bring these threads together – particularly as we’re already a quarter of the way through this year!

It was great to see such a good turn out at the Dementia Mate Wareware Network hui last month for a kōrero (talk) about the future of the Dementia Mate Wareware Action Plan.

As one of the original authors of the Action Plan, we had bold ambitions for what we thought would have changed for people living with dementia mate wareware five years on. We haven’t made the progress we hoped to make for a whole raft of reasons, not the least of which is the combined impact of Covid and the health system changes! So where does that leave us?

We all know the size and scale of the challenge, and the number of people who are struggling because they are living with dementia mate wareware and not able to get the help and support they need, is growing rapidly.

But we know more now than we did five years ago about how to address that challenge so the argument to retain a plan remains strong. It’s a blueprint for the Government to do more and better now and to reduce the impact of dementia mate wareware in future.

Our thinking is to refresh the Action Plan to make it relevant for the next five years. The four overarching objectives and the bones of the plan are still relevant, and our proposal is to focus on the priorities identified by the network:

• Timely and accurate diagnosis and comprehensive management plans in primary care
• Equitable provision and funding of community-based services
• Better support for the workforce and care partners/whānau
• Brain Health programme

We’re keen to hear from you, so please add your feedback through this online survey if you weren’t able to make the hui. You can check out my full presentation to the network hui online to help with your feedback.

We will use this feedback to start work on a refreshed Action Plan and expect to share a draft with you mid-year.

On another note, here at Alzheimers NZ we’re also turning our mind to our preparation for the 2026 General Election.

Dementia mate wareware is a health sector priority that can no longer be ignored so what it really comes down to is the need to get the political parties to commit to implementing the Action Plan and to fairly funding community dementia services. We’ll add some material on this to our website shortly, so watch this space!

We’re meeting with Minister of Health Hon Simeon Brown next month so it’ll be a good opportunity to highlight dementia mate wareware as a health priority that can no longer be ignored. And to reinforce to the Minister, who is known to be decisive, that tackling dementia mate wareware now will deliver positive political and fiscal outcomes for Government by reducing the pressure on the health system and delivering better outcomes for people living with dementia mate wareware!

On a related note, it was great to join the first hui (meeting) about the evaluation of the 2022 Budget initiatives commissioning by the Ministry of Health and led by the University of Auckland. We look forward to understanding the impact the governance ecosystem and the seven pilots are having.

And finally, I’m delighted to let you know our upcoming Solving the Dementia Challenge with People, Partnership and Innovation conference event will be held on 25 and 26 September in Auckland and online. We’ll share more details with you soon, but for now we encourage you to save the date! We’re really excited about how the programme is shaping up and can’t wait to see you there.

At the same time, our Dementia Learning Centre (DLC) Director Caroline Bartle has some exciting new programmes underway, which we’ll be ready to share with you soon. You can subscribe to DLC updates on our website and get in touch with Caroline if you’re interested in any of our programmes.