Auditor General Charles Deguara today presented the performance audit report in caption to Speaker of the House of Representatives Dr Anglu Farrugia. This audit focuses on the support services offered to individuals with dementia and their caregivers while the former are still living in their own residence.
In Malta, a projected number of 7,450 people were thought to have dementia in 2021, of which an estimated 80% to 85% were still living in the community. The National Dementia Strategy ‘Empowering Change’ was launched in 2015 and was set to be implemented over a number of years up till 2023. To this end, NAO resolved to assess the extent of implementation of the dementia strategy’s community objectives, and positively notes that the majority of these objectives which relate to community living have been fully implemented or registered significant progress in their implementation.
Central among these objectives and of particular interest to this Office, is the setting up of a Dementia Intervention Team (DIT), intended to support and guide persons diagnosed with dementia and their respective caregivers, while still residing within the community. Through its analysis, NAO concluded that although this unit is being positively received by its clients, it considers the current DIT’s active case load of around 600 clients as low when compared to the projected number of approximately 6,000 people with dementia living in the community. NAO believes that the unit should have as much visibility as possible on dementia cases in Malta, principally through enhanced communication systems with other related stakeholders (particularly medical professionals), so that it can have a wider understanding of the local situation and better identify potential clients who would benefit from its structured services. Notwithstanding, this Office also acknowledges that a significant expansion of DIT’s operation will also require the unit to be supported with additional qualified and competent human resources, which could prove to be a challenge itself.
This Office positively notes that a number of specialised services for people with dementia were launched recently, such as telecare on the move and the opening of two day and night dementia activity centres in Safi and Mtarfa, even if it has reservations on the limited coverage the latter offer and therefore questions whether they can be considered as nation-wide initiatives. This Office also observed that, besides these specialised services, the Active Ageing and Community Care (AACC) does offer numerous other services, even if they are generic in nature. While NAO does not contend the benefits which can still be reaped from a generic service, it still believes that dementia clients may have exigencies which would be best addressed through a specialised service and delivered through individuals who have been provided with the adequate training.
As dementia is a multi-faceted condition which heavily effects the individual’s medical and social aspects, NAO is concerned with the identified apparent shortcomings in communication between the various government stakeholders involved in this field, which may present to be significantly fragmented to the intended clients. NAO therefore strongly urges DIT to be more pro-active in enhancing such collaborations and to spearhead initiatives which would see the creation and implementation of a structured system within which communication and information sharing can occur in a more efficient and effective manner.
These issues, along with others, are comprehensively presented in the audit report together with this Office’s recommendations. This report, in its entirety, may be accessed through the NAO website: www.nao.gov.mt as well as on the NAO Facebook page – www.facebook.com/NAOMalta.
Source: Office of the Prime Minister