The central objective of the Alzheimer’s Action Plan and other dementias is to promote the well-being of people with Alzheimer’s disease and related diseases and their families by strengthening the response of the Mexican Health System, in synergy with all responsible institutions. The main strategies of the Plan are (Gutiérrez-Robledo & Arrieta-Cruz, 2014):

• To prevent and promote mental health through public policy that considers mental health from a life-course perspective, that is, it considers preventing risk factors known as diabetes and hypertension while promoting active and healthy aging.
• To improve access to health services at all levels of care with a multidisciplinary approach, encompassing not only the hospital setting but also the community setting; through a long-term care perspective, including the establishment and maintenance of day centres for the care of older adults with dementia in their early stages.
• To identify and diagnose older adults with dementia in a timely manner through a comprehensive, multidisciplinary evaluation that reduces the impact of disability and dependency by training health professionals who are at the first level of care and the appropriate use of current screening instruments.
• To increase the number of personnel trained to treat people with dementia through permanent and constantly updated training programmes, from an inclusive perspective, considering that the care of the elderly person with dementia implies a multidisciplinary team.
• To raise society’s awareness of the importance of dementia as a public health problem in order to prevent abuse and discrimination of older adults with dementia and to recognise the importance of formal and informal carers.
• To increase research, from all areas of knowledge involved in the phenomenon, emphasising applied research studies, favouring the link between different institutions and scientific groups.
• To continuously evaluate the impact of each of the proposed actions through the development of indicators.
• To provide long-term care in the later stages of the disease.

References:

Gutiérrez-Robledo, L., & Arrieta-Cruz, I. (2014). Plan de Acción Alzheimer y otras demencias, México 2014. http://diariote.mx/docs/plan_alzheimer_WEB.pdf