‘Ormathoni’ is a symbol of the support provided by the government to the elderly, Minister for Social Justice R. Bindu has said.
She was speaking after performing the State-level inauguration of the Ormathoni project rolled out by the Social Justice department for the elderly suffering from dementia/Alzheimer’s disease here on Thursday.
The Kerala Social Security Mission (KSSM) will implement the project with the support of other government departments with a view to realising the objective of dementia-friendly Kerala.
The Minister said Ormathoni was being launched to ensure a comfortable life for the elderly and their safety and security. In the first phase, it will be implemented in 91 urban local bodies where Vayomithram units function.
The department will also arrange basic infrastructure for Thiruvananthapuram district panchayat and Ollukkara block panchayat in Thrissur district that have expressed readiness to run ‘pakal veedu’ (day care centres) for the elderly who have dementia. These day care centres will be taken over by the Social Justice department, the Minister said.
Ormathoni will create scientific awareness among the elderly and those who provide care to them on how to manage situations when there is memory loss, organise memory clinics in local bodies across the State, identify dementia and other such conditions through screenings held with the support of such clinics, and provide guidelines on managing such conditions, and provide medicines and care of doctors and paramedical staff.
The Minister said that by identifying dementia and similar conditions early enough and managing them scientifically, difficulties caused by these could be reduced to a minimum.
The Minister released a handbook prepared as part of Ormathoni by handing it over to Cotton Hill school students Diya Salin and Liya Salin who have drawn illustrations for the book.
Preliminary screening for dementia and awareness class by doctors for nearly 350 elderly from the district who attended the inaugural.
Antony Raju, MLA, presided. KSSM executive director H. Dineshan and ward councillor Rakhi Ravikumar were present.
