South Africa has an Older Person’s Act (no.13 of 2006) that broadly deals with issues pertaining to older persons and aging in general, and it mentions the care for older persons with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

The DSD also has an Older Person’s Programme that is responsible for coordinating services provided to older persons.

The country’s National government has also adopted the Mental Health Policy Framework and Strategic Plan (2013-2020) that promotes an integrated care model that decentralises primary care to home- and community-based services. Although there is no specific mention of dementia in this strategic plan, it is an important document (action plan) as the current focus on improving residential care services in South Africa (i.e., following the Life Health Esidimeni[1] tragedy in 2016), provides the opportunity to place Dementia on the agenda.

The White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Government Gazette, 09 March 2016, no.39792) briefly mentions older persons with dementia (see p.71) (White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2015).

[1] The Life Health Esidimeni tragedy: Where 143 mentally incapacitated patients died due to starvation and neglect after the Gauteng Department of Health (in  a bid to save costs) terminated an outsourced care contract with Life Esidimeni (service provider) and transferred patients to NGOs etc, who were not prepared or equipped to care for these patients (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Healthcare_Esidimeni_Scandal).

References:

Government Gazette. (2006). Older Persons Act, No.13 of 2006 (Vol. 13, Issue 1098). Available from: https://www.westerncape.gov.za/other/2012/3/older_persons_act.pdf

White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 1 (2015). https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201603/39792gon230.pdf