TOKYO, June 18 (Xinhua) -- Japan's cabinet on Tuesday approved a new plan to try and focus on the country's rising cases of dementia sufferers involving both preventative measures and methods to delay the onset of the disease, involving making provisions for those affected to live comfortably in society.
"While placing an emphasis on the viewpoint of people with dementia and their families, we will make coexistence and prevention the two wheels of a cart to strongly propel measures against dementia," Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told relevant ministers who are addressing the issue.
The move came following the government abandoning a plan to try and numerically reduce the number of people with dementia, owing to concerns the initiative could lead to patients and families unnecessarily blaming themselves for not preventing the disease.
The government had said it was planning to reduce the number of people with dementia by 10 percent over the next decade in a bid to help counter the rising social security costs involved with caring for sufferers.
Japan is becoming increasingly burdened with ballooning social welfare costs due to its rapidly aging and shrinking society, with the government estimating that the number of dementia sufferers will increase to 7-8 million people, or 6-7 percent of the total population, by 2030.
More conservative estimates by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) forecast the number of sufferers to reach 3.8 percent of the country's population by 2037.
Even at the lower scale of estimates, the number of patients with dementia in Japan will still be the highest among the 35 OECD states, topping the 2.3 percent average forecast within the group.
The shift in the new proposal to address dementia now sees "prevention" as was mentioned in the previous plan, now changed to "delaying the onset of dementia and slowing the development of symptoms once patients develop them."
The government currently plans to establish more places where senior citizens can get together and jointly take part in activities such as working out, dining together and enjoying hobbies, as studies have suggested that social interaction and exercise can help prevention.
The new program seeks to promote such joint activities at facilities accommodating senior citizens, with an aim at having 8 percent of those aged 65 or older take part, compared to 4.9 percent in 2017.
While the government has provided funding to local municipalities to facilitate such gatherings, they have failed to garner enough interest from the senior citizen community.
While the government still seeks to tackle the myriad issues involved with the rising numbers of those with dementia, including a recent spike in traffic accidents, medical experts have said that overly focusing on medical care alone may not be the best solution as reliable pharmaceutical means to comprehensively treat the disease have yet to found.
They advocate for a combined approach of increased scientific research and therapeutic solutions to help tackle the disease.
