In August, ADI Regional Director for the Americas, Diego Aguilar, took part in multiple key events in Montevideo, Uruguay. These included a high-level meeting with Minister of Public Health Dr Cristina Lustemberg, alongside ADI member association AUDAS and leading dementia experts and advocates in the country, to discuss the development of Uruguay’s first National Dementia Plan.
Also in Montevideo, Diego joined the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)’s Regional Conference on Population and Development to discuss the inclusion of dementia in Latin America and the Caribbean’s regional policy agenda.
With an estimated 50,000 people living with dementia in Uruguay, the country is taking an important step towards developing a National Dementia Plan following a meeting between Minister of Public Health Dr Cristina Lustemberg, her team, ADI and leading dementia experts and advocates in the country. ADI Regional Director for the Americas, Diego Aguilar, joined Rosario Lemus, President of ADI member association AUDAS, Francesca Mariani and Cristina Vázquez from Hospital de Clínicas Dr Manuel Quintela, and Ana Charamelo from Hospital Británico to discuss the need for a coordinated national response to dementia.
The discussion highlighted that Uruguay already has many of the foundations needed to develop a National Dementia Plan, and Minister Lustemberg committed to advancing its immediate development. Initial priorities will include strengthening primary healthcare, prevention and early detection; improving epidemiological data and statistics; mapping existing services and needs; and ensuring post-diagnostic support for people living with dementia, families and carers.
Following the meeting, a working group will now be established to take this commitment forward and advance the development of the Plan. The Ministry will also join activities for the upcoming World Alzheimer’s Month.
The momentum in Uruguay also comes at an important time for dementia policy across MERCOSUR (The Southern Common Market). Earlier this year, dementia was formally brought into the bloc’s regional agenda, creating an opportunity to strengthen cooperation between countries and share experience on the development and implementation of national dementia plans. ADI is now working with partners across the region to build on this momentum and explore a MERCOSUR regional initiative on dementia, connecting countries at different stages of their policy journey and supporting greater regional cooperation.
During Diego’s country visit, he also joined ECLAC’s Regional Conference on Population and Development in Montevideo. Dementia was explicitly included in the conference’s key policy report, marking an important step towards recognising its growing impact as populations across the region age.
This message was reinforced during the Conference’s official panel on ageing and long-term care, where ADI Regional Director for the Americas Diego Aguilar highlighted a simple but critical point:
We cannot talk about long-term care without talking about dementia.
Nearly 10 million people are living with dementia across Latin America and the Caribbean. Long-term care systems must therefore recognise cognitive dependency alongside physical dependency, connect dementia policy with health and social protection, support families and carers, and ensure that people living with dementia participate in designing the systems intended to support them.
Bringing dementia into the conversation is an important step. The next is ensuring that the learnings from these conversations are built into the policies and care systems of the region.
