Walking for dementia care
To mark world Alzheimer's Day, a hundred caregivers and volunteers from the Bangalore chapter of Nightingales Centre for Aging and Alzheimer's will walk 60 km to spread awareness and seek infrastructure for those affected by the disorder.
In keeping with the theme for World Alzheimer's Month (September) - 2013, which is 'Dementia - a journey of caring', the walk too will focus on making Bangalore a dementia-friendly city.
A mobile exhibition will head the walk, with experts interacting with the commoners, talking about the disorder. "As Alzheimer's is linked to aging, with an increase in average lifespan, the prevalence of the disorder too has gone up," says Dr Radha S Murthy, managing trustee, Nightingales Medical Trust.
Shalini Chinnaswamy, psychologist and volunteer at Nightingales Medical Trust, says that though awareness about dementia has increased over the past five years, there are several who fail to recognise symptoms. "Dementia is not just memory loss. It is only when the memory loss affects day-to-day functioning and is accompanied by other cognitive degeneration that a person needs to worry about having dementia," she says.
Beginning from Kolar today, Marathon Memory Walk, will culminate in Bangalore on September 21, (World Alzheimer's Day) with a special programme. Former union minister SM Krishna and state minister for medical education, Dr Sharan Prakash Patil will join in. A memorandum will be submitted to the state government, in which the participants will seek better facilities for the welfare of the Alzheimer's affected.
"We want to start a small dementia centre in Kolar, so that's going to be our starting point for this year. After that we can spread out to the surrounding rural areas," says Dr Radha.