Tony Yang, associate professor of health administration and policy, is the single author on a new 44-page comparative review examining the role of government in addressing Alzheimer’s disease to help inform better health policy decisions. The review is published in the Journal of Health & Biomedical Law.
Yang reviews both state and federal approaches to Alzheimer’s care in the United States, as well as the Alzheimer’s disease-related policies and laws in eight major developed countries, including Canada, Sweden, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
Yang finds that government measures vary greatly from country to country, not only in the services provided to persons with Alzheimer's disease, but also in the formal health care and social care systems they utilize. Despite the recent initiative of the National Alzheimer’s Project Act, the United States lags behind its foreign peers in Alzheimer's care strategies and programs. Yang concludes that an effective policy to address the disease must emphasize early detection, and home-based care and caregivers need to also be included in any new or updated policy decisions.