‘India to be capital of Alzheimer’s and dementia by 2030’

One in two octogenarians suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia where memory declines slowly and the elders need to depend on others even for the simplest of tasks. One in five people between 75 and 84 years of age and 3% of those between 65 years and 75 years have the illness.

With around 5 lakh of city population above the age of 60 years, the statistics are scary to say the least, according to experts, who pointed out that early detection, access to treatment and trained family care remain largely unexplored in the city.

A two-day national conference on ‘Alzheimer’s and dementia related diseases - emerging challenges’ started on Saturday in Pune where experts from across the country have gathered to deliberate on challenges in age-related diseases. The conference, in its 16th year, is being organised by International Longevity Centre India (ILCI) and Pune chapter of Alzheimer’s & Related Disorders Society of India (ARDSI), which functions under the aegis of Chaitanya Mental Healthcare Centre (CMHC).

Besides raising awareness on Alzheimer’s and dementia, the conference will discuss challenges in managing patients, holistic treatment and combining all pathies, training family members and problems of caregivers, and lifestyle-risk factors amongst other issues. Speaking at the inauguration, founder director of Symbiosis Society SB Mujumdar spoke about how aging is a natural process and asked experts to discuss strategies to slow down the process of degeneration by creating awareness on disorders relating to old age.

CMHC also shared the Dementia India Report 2010 on this occasion where research pointed out that India was going to be the capital for Alzheimer’s and dementia by 2030.

“There is a need for all pathies like allopathy, homeopathy, Ayurveda and even non-drug therapies like music therapy etc to converge and work together for a healthy India,” he said.

The research carried out by ARDSI president and ILC-I Dr Sharadchandra Gokhale, psychiatrists Dr Vidhyadhar Watave and Dr Jacob Roy Kuriakose also highlighted the need for trained family members towards proper care of Alzheimer’s patients.

Gokhale pointed out that currently Alzheimer’s has no known cure though research is being carried out and screening patients early is the only hope. “Usually patients and families do not consider screening until late. By then the disease progresses and it is too late to help them,” he said.

Experts also expressed joy at the Union government taking up the issue of familial support to affected patients seriously and giving a nod to public-private partnerships to look into these concerns.
“The conference will especially focus on caregivers i.e. family support, how to train them, hurdles faced in the task of care giving as well as psychological issues of caregivers,” said CMHC (Pune) director, Rony George.

Actor Amol Palekar’s latest venture ‘Dhusar’ is a story of the relationship between a mother and daughter after the former is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. He requested people to watch it foreducating themselves and hoped for many such films.