Dementia

According to current estimates, around 130.000 persons in Austria are living with a form of dementia. Due to the increased average age of the population and the related rise in life expectation, this figure will presumably double by 2050.

From the perspective of care and support, the issue of dementia has a special status given that the vast majority of people with dementia-related impairments are looked after at home by their family members.

There is no cure for dementia, but early diagnosis makes it possible to slow down and mitigate the course of the disease.

Qualified support and advice is important to help those affected and their family members. In suspected cases, it is possible to contact a memory clinic or a doctor specialising in neurology. In addition, there are regional advice and support offers in the provinces.

Nationwide measures for the implementation of the Austrian dementia strategy: Living Well with Dementia

The topic of dementia has long since ceased to be a marginal issue. On the contrary, it is a key challenge within the Austrian long-term care system, whose extension and constant further development to improve the lives of those affected and their families is a declared goal of the Ministry of Social Affairs.

With the implementation of the national dementia strategy, the Ministry of Social Affairs is taking on this important issue in cooperation with the provinces, local authorities, the association of towns and cities, the social insurance institutions, academia, those affected and their families and friends, and above all by involving a broad section of society.

Needs-oriented services which are coordinated across all areas of care, and which are continuously available to people with dementia and their families and friends, require the cooperation of all those responsible for the health and social services sectors. In order to contribute to the success of the Austrian dementia strategy, all stakeholders are invited to become active in their sphere of responsibility.

The Platform fort he Dementia Strategy

In order to support coordinated action, in 2016 the Federal Platform for the Dementia Strategy was established, which is described in more detail in the recommendation for action 4c of target 4 of the dementia strategy. The platform has the task of facilitating coordinated action and the implementation of joint cross-sector framework conditions and recommendations.

To this end, stakeholders, persons responsible for realisation, researchers and those affected are forming a joint platform, whereby existing structures will be taken into consideration. The implementation process will be accompanied and coordinated by a GÖG project team. In this way, cross-sector and nationwide cooperation of the relevant stakeholders is ensured.

Current measures for the implementation of the dementia strategy

- Website www.demenzstrategie.at documents the implementation status of measures that were fixed in the dementia strategy, primarily aimed to those persons, institutions and organizations that contribute to the implementation of the dementia strategy.

- Guide "Dementia in language and image" for a dementia-friendly representation (from a deficit- to a strength-oriented representation)

- Dementia strategy brochure - offers for family caregivers (regular updates)

- Establishment of a federal working group of people with dementia parallel to the coordination group of the platform dementia

- Folder "Living well with dementia - a guide".

- Detailed focus on dementia on the information platform https://pflege.gv.at/leben-mit-demenz

- Information on the dementia strategy is also available in easy read versions

- Orientation guide "Dementia competence in hospitals“

- Orientation guide "Dementia competence in nursing homes“

- Brochure "People with dementia in public transport"

- Annual workshop of the Dementia Strategy Platform: 2018 in Graz; 2019 in the City Hall of Vienna, 2020 as an online event with four online talks. More information can be found on the website www.demenzstrategie.at, where the conference proceedings have also been published.

- Extension of home visits to care allowance recipients with dementia

Support offers for dementia sufferers and their families

Caring for and supporting elderly people in need of care (and possibly suffering from dementia) is no longer the exception today, and has become a central issue in Austrian social policy. It is not only those in need of care, but also and particularly their caregiving family members who require support, as depending on their health and the current situation in their lives and their own families, they frequently take on great burdens and are making an extremely valuable contribution to society.

In these situations, the Ministry of Social Affairs provides support in the form of various measures in the case of family members who are in need of care and are suffering from dementia.

Long-term care benefit – hardship supplement

When a person’s need for care is established, a hardship supplement can be awarded with the aim of providing a lump sum to compensate for the additional costs due to the aggravated care situation. This supplement amounts to 25 hours per month (Section 4 para. 5 of the Federal Act on Long-term Care Benefit) (BPGG).

Care leave / part-time work for caregiving relatives / care leave benefit

In order to improve the compatibility of providing care and working, the instruments of care leave and part-time work for caregiving relatives have been introduced into the Act on the Adaptation of Employment Contracts (AVRAG, Sections 14c-15). During this period, protection is provided to employees against being made redundant due to them taking care leave. They also have a legal right to care leave benefit (Section 21c et seq BPGG), and as caregiving relatives they are safeguarded by social insurance law. If dementia-related impairments have been established in the person in need of care, a care leave agreement can be made even if the person is only in care stage 1 (and in any case from stage 3).

Allowance towards the cost of a replacement carer

If caregiving relatives are temporarily prevented from providing care due to illness, holidays or other reasons, an allowance is provided by the federal government (Section 21a BPGG).

This allowance is intended to contribute towards covering the costs which arise due to the need for professional or private substitute care when the usual main carer is unable to carry out his or her duties. In the case of confirmed dementia-related impairments, this is also possible for persons receiving long-term care benefit at stage 1(and generally from stage 3).

In addition, in order to improve the situation the previous guidelines for the granting of payments to support caregiving relatives as laid down in Section 21a BPGG were changed as of 1 January 2017 with the effect that the maximum annual amounts for caregiving relatives of people with dementia-related impairments were increased by €300 in all care stages. They thus amount to €1500 for the care of a person receiving long-term care benefit at stages 1, 2 or 3, €1700 at stage 4, €1900 at stage 5, € 2300 at stage 6 and €2500 at stage 7. 

Quality assurance in care at home: home visits and counselling for caregiving relatives upon request

As part of quality assurance in care at home, the Ministry of Social Affairs offers free home visits with advice from qualified nurses. In addition, family members who feel stressed as a result of the care situation can also take advantage of free counselling.

Projects

In the field of long-term care, the federal government supports the provinces and local authorities with grants from the long-term care fund which are earmarked for securing support and care services and their needs-based extension and development. Until 31 October of each year at the latest, the provinces are obliged by the provisions of the Long-term Care Fund Act to present to the Ministry of Social Affairs plans to safeguard, extend and develop care provision for the following year.

The Long-term Care Fund Act also lays down that the results of evidence-based research in the field of care have to be taken into account when caring for people with dementia-related impairments.

The Austrian dementia strategy: Living Well with Dementia

Based on the Austrian Dementia Report 2014, the Austrian dementia strategy in 2015 laid the foundations for an orientation framework to provide the best support people with people with dementia-related impairments and their families and friends.

In this report, a total of seven targets and 21 recommendations for action were formulated, the achievement of which would improve the situations of persons with dementia-related impairments as well as that of their families and friends as well as providing a common orientation framework for purposeful cooperation between the stakeholders. On the basis of the refined recommendations for action, decision-makers (at federal, provincial and local authority levels) were to plan and realise measures in their own spheres in order to jointly achieve the defined targets.

• The Austrian Dementia Report 2014 can be downloaded from the Brochure Service.
• Dementia Strategy „Living well with Dementia“

Logo of the dementia strategy

As a sign of the joint path we wish to take with the dementia strategy, a special logo was created. This is to be used in all of the activities carried out within the framework of the strategy and should also disseminate the core message of the strategy.

If you require the logo in another format, please contact us at kommunikation@sozialministerium.at