Today, the Joint Action on Dementia and Health (JADE Health) will hold its kick-off meeting. JADE Health is a three-year collaboration between 15 Member States, Norway and Ukraine, led by Spain. Supported with EUR 4.5 million from the EU4Health programme, this key initiative will support Member States in the reduction of the burden of dementia and other neurological disorders. The work will be done both at a societal and personal level, by improving prevention and early detection, education and understanding of the disease for relatives, care professionals and other stakeholders.
JADE Health aims to address dementia in a comprehensive way: from improving health literacy and awareness, screening and primary prevention among high-risk population groups to support people living with dementia and other neurological disorders. This will be done via awareness raising, early detection and delaying the onset of dementia through prevention.
In addition, JADE Health will transfer the following four best practices from the EU Best Practice Portal on Public Health:
- Memory and Cognition Consultation Program
- Care Planning in Integrated Care Organisation
- Managing active and healthy ageing with the use of caring service robots
- Smartaging Mindbrain
44 transnational pilot initiatives will be carried out to reinforce existing national policies and programs.
In order to ensure synergy and regular exchange of information and experience, JADE Health will collaborate closely with other joint actions, such as MENTOR (Mental Health Together) and a new joint action that will focus on the mental health of vulnerable groups, and with the stakeholder-led project Care4Elders.
Dementia is currently the seventh leading cause of death and a major cause of dependency among older people globally. The ‘Health at a glance: Europe 2024’ report shows that in 2021, nearly 8 million people across the EU were estimated to have dementia, and over 9% of people aged over 70 were estimated to have Alzheimer’s. The prevalence increases sharply with age, rising from 3% among people aged 70-74 to 18% among those aged over 80 across EU Member States.
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