There is no mechanism in government to coordinate care specifically for people living with dementia. However, there is the National Policy for Primary Care (Política Nacional de Atenção Básica) that includes the Family Healthcare Strategy (a multidisciplinary team of health professionals that provides regular care to the community). These groups are the first point of contact between people in the community and the provision of public healthcare (Brazilian Ministry of Health, 2012). Based on a multidimensional assessment, people are referred to more specialized care where they can access diagnoses and treatments when needed. There is also a programme/service called “Matriciamento em Saúde Mental” which is a model of delivering healthcare where two or more professional teams create a proposal of a pedagogical-therapeutic intervention. In Brazil, this model is developed between the Family Health Strategy (reference team) and a supportive mental health team (in the case of dementia). The aim is to make the system less hierarchical by providing a specialized technical support to an interprofessional team so as to broaden their field of action and to qualify their actions (Brazilian Ministry of Health, 2011b).

References:

Brazilian Ministry of Health. (2011b). Guia prático de matriciamento em saúde mental. http://bvsms.saude.gov.br/bvs/publicacoes/guia_pratico_matriciamento_saudemental.pdf

Brazilian Ministry of Health. (2012). Política Nacional de Atenção Básica. http://189.28.128.100/dab/docs/publicacoes/geral/pnab.pdf