Amendment Statement of Principles
concerning
 
VASCULAR DEMENTIA
No. 61 of 2010
 
for the purposes of the
 
Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986
and
Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004
 
1.                    This Instrument may be cited as Statement of Principles concerning vascular dementia No. 61 of 2010.
 
2.                    The Repatriation Medical Authority amends, under subsection 196B(8) of the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986, Statement of Principles concerning vascular dementia Instrument No. 21 of 2006, as amended by Instrument No. 63 of 2006, by replacing the wording of clause 3(b) with the following:
 
'For the purposes of this Statement of Principles, "vascular dementia" means a dementia meeting the following diagnostic criteria:
 
A.        The development of multiple cognitive deficits manifested by both:
(1)             memory impairment (impaired ability to learn new information or to recall previously learned information); and
(2)             one (or more) of the following cognitive disturbances:
(a)          aphasia (language disturbance);
(b)         apraxia (impaired ability to carry out motor activities despite intact motor function);
(c)         agnosia (failure to recognise or identify objects despite intact sensory function); or
(d)         disturbance in executive functioning (i.e., planning, organising, sequencing, abstracting).
 
B.        The cognitive deficits in Criteria A1 and A2 each cause significant impairment in social or occupational functioning and represent a significant decline from a previous level of functioning.
C.        Focal neurological signs and symptoms (e.g., exaggeration of deep flexor tendon reflexes, extensor plantar response, pseudobulbar palsy, gait abnormalities, weakness of an extremity), or neuroimaging evidence indicative of cerebrovascular disease (e.g., multiple infarctions involving cortex and underlying white matter) that are judged to be aetiologically related to the disturbance.
D.        The deficits do not occur exclusively during the course of a delirium.'
 
3.                    The amendment made by this instrument applies to all matters to which Instrument No. 21 of 2006, as amended by Instrument No. 63 of 2006, section 120A of the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986 and section 338 of the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004 apply.
 
4.                    The amendment made by this instrument takes effect from 30 June 2010.
 
Dated this       eighteenth     day of              June  2010
 
The Common Seal of the                  )
Repatriation Medical Authority       )
was affixed to this instrument          )
in the presence of                              )
KEN DONALD
CHAIRPERSON