No time to lose as far as Alzheimer’s concerned

Of course, the month of September is observed annually as “Alzheimer’s Awareness Month” which includes World Alzheimer’s Day on September 21. The theme this year is “100 years of Alzheimer’s Disease 1906 - 2006. No time to lose.”

A century ago, Dr Alois Alzheimer described the disease that would bear his name. One hundred years later Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia affect 24 million people worldwide. Numbers are rising fast and shocking new figures published in the medical journal The Lancet warn of an imminent dementia epidemic, with one new case every seven seconds the number of people with dementia is projected to increase to 81 million by 2040.

Dementia, the general term used to describe brain disorders that primarily affect a person’s memory and behaviour, affects mainly the quality rather than the length of life, and is the major cause of need for care in older people. Alzheimer’s disease accounts for 50-60 percent of all cases of dementia. Memory loss, the most common symptom of dementia, is not the same as ordinary forgetfulness. While we might forget the name of a movie we saw last night, a person with dementia may forget that they saw the movie at all.

In the same way, forgetting where you put the car keys is fine, but the problem is not remembering what to do with them when found.

“We must act now to raise awareness about this approaching epidemic. Working together we must make dementia a major health priority,” said Alzheimer’s Disease International.

World Alzheimer’s Day is therefore considered a day of solidarity that unites people living with dementia around the globe. And on September 21, each year people with dementia, their caregivers and their Alzheimer Associations organise events and activities to raise public awareness.

The local programme, in this the centenary year of the identification of the disease and in the tenth year of the organisation in Trinidad and Tobago, starts on Saturday September 2 with the annual general meeting from 10 am to 12 noon at the Pharmacy Board and continues on September 3 with an annual church service at St Crispin’s Anglican Church from 10 am. On Saturday September 9 the Kappa Drugs/Pfizer/Alzheimer’s Association’s seminar takes place from 10 am to 12 noon at the Chamber of Commerce Building in Westmoorings. At 7.30 am Saturday September 16 the Memory Walk takes place on the Queen’s Park Savannah starting opposite to Queen’s Royal College.

And while International will observe World Alzheimer’s Day on Thursday September 21 in a challenging climb of Mount Kilimanjaro, the local group will host Open Day at the City Hall Auditorium from 9.30 am to 3 pm which includes an exhibition, videos, caregivers’ forum, lecture and discussion.

On Saturday 23 there will be a caregivers’ gathering - brunch; and on Saturday 30 the annual seminar “No Time to Lose” takes place at the South Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

The association appeals to all those who may continue in a state of denial where this dreaded disease is concerned to join in “Sharing the Caring.”