Currently, the Ministry of Health, facilitated by Africa Mental Health Research and Training Foundation and ADOK is developing  a National dementia Plan with funding from the STRiDE project and London School of Economics (London School of Economics (LSE), 2018; C. Musyimi et al., 2019).  This is expected to increase awareness on dementia in community settings through evidence-based tools. Furthermore, members of the project work towards making dementia care a priority at policy level. The expected knowledge increase around dementia care is likely to result in a rise in the number of people receiving a timely diagnosis and adequate care and support for people with dementia and their carers. The aim of STRiDE is to build capacity to support the development, implementation, and evaluation of national strategies to deliver appropriate, equitable, effective, and affordable dementia care. STRiDE will support the development of a National Dementia Plan by offering recommendations based on a thorough situational analysis and other scientific results from the project. Following these changes, it can be expected that through future funding, guidelines, and protocols, dementia care in Kenya in future will be addressing the needs of people living with dementia, their families and those of health and long-term care professionals.

HelpAge International is also taking the lead in collaboration with Ministry of Health to develop a community care package – training manual for the care of older people in Kenya. It is expected that this manual will cover issues around dementia since it is intended to cover non-communicable diseases including mental illness (HelpAge International, 2019). Discussions around development of healthy ageing strategy are underway through the same partnership. This could result in dementia awareness and addressing risk factors related to dementia within community settings.  Africa Mental Health Research and Training Foundation (AMHRTF) and ADOK are part of the team involved in the development of this manual.

References:

HelpAge International. (2019). Terms of Reference for Development of Home Based Care (HBC)/Community care Package – Training Manual for the care of Older People in Kenya and Mozambique. https://www.helpage.org/silo/files/consultancy-on-development-of-hbc-package.pdf

London School of Economics (LSE). (2018). Strengthening Responses to Dementia in Developing Countries (STRiDE). https://www.lse.ac.uk/cpec/research/projects/dementia/stride

Musyimi, C., Mutunga, E., & Ndetei, D. (2019). Stigma and dementia care in Kenya: Strengthening Responses to Dementia in Developing Countries (STRiDE) Project. In World Alzheimer Report 2019: Attitudes to dementia (pp. 121–122). London, UK: Alzheimer’s Disease International. https://www.alzint.org/u/WorldAlzheimerReport2019.pdf