The long-term care(LTC) service for frail elderly persons is one of the most challenging issues throughout the world. The public provision of LTC in Korea is still in its infancy. The main policy concerning LTC should include qualitative aspects such as autonomy, privacy, and consumers' right of elderly persons. Dementia is a brain disorder characterized by acquired loses of cognitive, emotional and functional abilities. Dementia has emerged as a major morbidity not only to health care providers and the families but also to the social health policy. The dementia service system has been developed as a national policy model such as the ten-year plan of dementia (1996~2005), and the LTC system has been mainly focused on institutionalization. Although chronic facilities such as large nursing homes for the service for dementia can relieve the economic burden, the dementia service needs a community- based, comprehensive care system encompassing early detection and diagnosis of dementia.