Policy Resolution 113

113. Priority Resolution: National Action Plan on Dementia

WHEREAS Dementia currently affects more than 35 million people worldwide and has been called a “global crisis” and a “ticking time-bomb” by G8 Ministers of Health, with predictions that those numbers will double every two decades (1); and

WHEREAS is a disease clearly associated with advancing age, affecting 1 person in 10 over the age of 65 in Canada, and 1 person in 3 over the age of 85; and

WHEREAS it is predicted that dementia will affect 1.4 million Canadians by 2040; and

WHEREAS the G8 Ministers of Health have called for action in every country to find an effective treatment or cure for dementia by 2025; and

WHEREAS Canada is the only G8 countries with no national strategy to address the dementia epidemic;

BE IT RESOLVED that the Liberal Party of Canada, working in partnership with mental health specialists, provinces and territories, and groups such as the Alzheimer Society of Canada, forthwith establish a comprehensive National Action Plan on Dementia.

Liberal Party of Canada (New Brunswick)

1. “G8 countries pledge to find cure or treatment for dementia by 2025.” CTV News. Report from CTV Medical Specialist Avis Favaro and producer Elizabeth St. Philip. Posted 11 Dec. 2013. http:// //www.ctvnews.ca/health/g8-countries-pledge-to-find-cure-or-treatment-for-dementia-by-2025-1.1586206.