Dementia–The Worldwide Burden. We Need to Act

Dementia is an important social and health care problem worldwide. The countries are dealing with this problem the best way they can. Therefore Alzheimer Europe launched the Glasgow Declaration in 2014, and the same day it was adopted unanimously by delegates from 26 Alzheimer Europe member organisations. In Slovenia, which is really a small central European country with a population of only 2 069 815 inhabitants [1] 1752 people signed the Glasgow Declaration. This puts our country at the first place among all the signatures countries. The aim of Glasgow Declaration is to recognise dementia as a public health priority and to develop a global action plan on dementia and national strategies in every country in Europe, and finally to promote the rights, dignity and autonomy of people living with dementia [2]. Slovenia accepted the National strategy in April 2016, and now is the right time to move forward and to put strategies into practice.