Mobile van to screen Alzheimer's among elderly

On the occasion of World Alzheimer’s Day, a mobile memory screening unit and a promotion van will move around the City to detect early Alzheimer’s among the elderly and to raise awareness among the young.

The mobile unit began its tour on Wednesday, with its inaugural visit scheduled at Bowring Hospital. It will visit Minto and Columbia Asia Hospital on Thursday and Victoria Hospital and RMZ Infinity campus on Friday.

The van will be equipped to conduct ‘mini mental status exam’ to evaluate the condition of the elderly, according to Priyamvada Muddapur, Manager, Training Services at Nightingales Centre for Ageing and Alzheimer’s.

The three-day programme has been organised by the Nightingales Centre and Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders Society of India (ARDI).

To mark the day, many doctors from the Bowring Hospital have signed the advocacy form, to support the cause of serving those with Alzheimer’s and raising awareness among the young, on to how to deal with the problem.

DG and IGP N Achutha Rao attended the inaugural function at the Freedom Park and highlighted the importance of the early identification of the disease and also the problems faced by the caregivers. He said the caregivers require support and counselling from various groups. The government provides absolutely no help in the matter, said Priyamvada. “We have raised a lot of noise, but in vain. There is nobody to deal with this problem and the government does not even understand that it is a priority health problem,” she added.

Presently, more than 30,000 people face the problem of Alzheimer’s in the City and it is yet to have a specialised dedicated dementia care
facility.

Helpline for patients
Dementia Bangalore Helpline for information and guidance:
93427 30936 /
93427 30959.
Will be open on all working days from 9 am - 9 pm.