Table 16 Romania

Area (2021)

238,400 km² [21]

Spread of dementia-specific outpatient care services for people with dementia

In several regions

Expert notes regarding outpatient care

In university centres of large cities, there is a special service for people with dementia. Otherwise, outpatient services are available where people with dementia can ask for help, but these services are not specialised for their needs.

Spread of dementia-specific inpatient care services for people with dementia

In individual regions

Expert notes regarding inpatient care

There are only a few specialised services for people with dementia. Psychogeriatric facilities do exist in large emergency hospitals. However, the major problem is that there is a lack of staff qualified to treat people with dementia and specialised facilities such as dementia units. As people with dementia are often placed together with younger people and cared for by staff that is not trained in dementia care, they do not receive dementia-specific care in most hospitals.

Expert conclusion regarding dementia-specific care structures

In Romania, although there are a few public facilities (especially hospitals), most care homes are operated by private organisations. Due to the high costs of these services, which are in principle available to all, many older people with dementia do not have access to them. Further, only a few care homes provide specific services for people with dementia, and the organisations that do so rarely take their needs into account. Information on dementia is available online, but access to it is very unevenly distributed. There are some highly qualified professionals and experts who deal with the topic of dementia in detail, have a great deal of knowledge, and share important information, for example, in lectures. However, this information does not reach the majority of the population and, in particular, not the large number of people with dementia and their relatives. Many older people (especially in rural areas) do not have any internet skills, have no technical access to the internet, and lack the financial resources to participate in education. The political will to change this does not exist. Overall, a national strategy for dementia care is lacking.

Existing models of good practise

1. The annual events organised by the ‘Societatea Română Alzheimer’ with people with dementia and their family members,

2. some further projects initiated in different regions and by local Alzheimer Societies with self-help groups, educational programmes, theatre and storytelling groups, and other services for people with dementia,

3. awareness raising of dementia in the general population through large public campaigns