Reported by: Weng Wei-Chih at County Hall
The first meeting of Kinmen County's Committee on the Age-Friendly City Promotion in 2018 was held yesterday. Presiding over the meeting, Deputy Magistrate Wu Cheng-Dian emphasized that although Kinmen’s population size is small, the efforts contributed in all aspects and the improvement of tangible and intangible construction have given it the best chance to attain the ideal of a perfect society. He hoped that participating experts and scholars would “share everything and hold nothing back” on their comprehensive review of the implementation results of building Kinmen into an age-friendly city, so that continuous advances can be made to turn Kinmen into a model city across the Taiwan Strait and a more blissful society.
The meeting was held at the newsroom of the County Hall at 10:30am yesterday, chaired by Deputy Magistrate Wu Cheng-Dian and Executive Secretary of the Committee, Director-General Wang Han-Jhih of Kinmen County’s Public Health Bureau (PHB). Participants include Associate Professor Liao Hong-En of the Department of Healthcare Administration at Asia University (AU), Professor Hu Yi-Jin of Department of Health Promotion and Health Education at National Taiwan Normal University’s (NTNU), conveners of all sub-groups, and department and bureau heads of the County Government.
Jhang Yu-Ting, PHB’s long-term care supervisor, first gave a lecture on “An Introduction to Dementia” at the meeting. She pointed out that dementia can be classified as reversible or irreversible, depending on the cause; fewer than 10% of these are reversible. In addition, dementia is not a single disease but a combination of symptoms. Its symptoms are not only memory loss but also the decline of other cognitive functions, including language ability, spacial awareness, computing capability, judgment and attention, etc.
Statistics show that in 2015, dementia affects about 46.8 million people worldwide, or about 5% of the global elderly population. Every year, an increase of more than 9.9 million will suffer from dementia worldwide, which on average is one new case every three seconds. In addition to increasing public awareness of dementia via the educational system, the PHB will also deploy a daily-living care system via long-term care services, enhancing resource integration among departments at the same time, to build a friendlier living environment for the local elderly dementia population.
The PHB, the organizer of the meeting, also reported on: 1. the progress of developing Kinmen County into an age-friendly city in 2018; 2. the formulation of the 2018 Kinmen age-friendly city action plan and assessment indicators; 3. assistance to all departments and bureaus to participate in the competition of the 10th Taiwan Healthy and Age-Friendly City Awards; 4. the promotion of age-friendly communities in Kinmen County; 5. The achievement of all departments and bureaus of Kinmen County in carrying out the age-friendly city project in 2018; and 6. the anticipating tasks in the second half of 2018.
The PHB pointed out that the promotion of the age-friendly city is a rolling process. Through adding and formulating action plans to the promotion project, it specifically and effectively improves disadvantaged living conditions to the elderly, providing an environment that facilitates active aging, to achieve maximum health, participation, and safety for the elderly during their aging journey. This year, the County’s departments and bureaus have also submitted 13 award-participating proposals in total, including 4 for outstanding awards and 3 for the Golden Pin awards in the Age-Friendly City category, and 6 for the innovation awards in the Healthy City category.
To encourage autonomous participation of the community in building a friendly environment for the elderly, so as to consolidate age-friendliness in the community, creating conditions conducive to elderly activities and encouraging the elders to participate, the PHB started a trial promoting age-friendly communities in 2015. This year, the theme of “dementia friendliness” has been included, hoping to eliminate the social stigma of dementia by promoting community awareness of the wisdom and capabilities still retained by the elderly and dementia sufferers, so that they can feel friendliness, convenience, and independence in their daily lives, living pleasantly and safely in a familiar community, and at the same time relieving the pressure on their families and society caring for them.
In addition, the meeting also discussed the PHB proposal on “inviting all departments and bureaus to join elderly and dementia friendly organizations, to effectively motivate all communities and venues to create an environment friendly to the elderly and those affected by dementia.”
The PHB stated that population aging had resulted in a significant increase of the dementia population. A national dementia epidemiological survey conducted by the Taiwan Alzheimer Disease Association (TADA) shows an 8% dementia prevalence rate among the elderly over 65, and a tendency to double with every 5-year increase of age. About 90% of dementia sufferers live at home, alone or cared for by family members; most of them have mobility and may move about in the community by themselves, and are therefore susceptible to sudden unexpected crises.
To create an environment friendly to the elderly and dementia sufferers in the County, the PHB plans to recruit age and dementia friendly organizations in the second half of this year, promoting in venues where the elderly regularly visit, such as temples, stations, traditional markets, grocery stores, warehouse markets, and clinics. It encourages the creation of an environment conducive to the activities of the elderly and dementia sufferers by improving hard and software spaces, and the education to the community to understand, respect, and tolerate the elderly and dementia sufferers, so that they can comfortably and safely move about in the community.
It is recommended that each department and bureau set up an age and dementia friendly service counter, assigning at least two front-line staff to receive an online, one-hour dementia friendly core training course, to prepare them as the County’s dementia friendly ambassadors.