Since January 2012 we assess the degree of dependence for the purposes of care allowance according to the ability of assessed person to take care of 10 basic living needs, defined as a summary of individual activities and determined in annex no. 1 in the announcement no 505/2006 Coll. The aim of the communication is analysis of the assessment of the degree of dependence for the purposes of care allowance since 2012 at persons older than 65 years with mental illness.
As the result of the assessment of the degree of dependence in the period 2012-2018 there is constant reduction quantity of the assessments of the degree of dependence for mental illness at all age groups, therefore people older than 65 years. There is also a reduction of the cases of dementia.
The reason may be the criteria of the assessment, which do not take into account the differences in the progress of the disease at seniors not even a geriatric fragility. Other reason of the results can be statistical mistake.
As a third reason we may consider low public awareness about possibilities of social compensations of the health disability in the form of the care allowance. As a conclusion the authors suggest actualization of the assessment criteria of the degree of dependence for assessed seniors, including the people with dementia.