Soumya Swaminathan, chairperson of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, on Saturday, raised the need for more data on dementia, trained caregivers for persons diagnosed with dementia, and research on interventions and the prevention of dementia.
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Taking part in the second anniversary celebrations of the Sri T.S. Santhanam Centre for Elderly Care, she said that there was a long way to go in creating acceptance in the community of mental health problems, and also creating awareness about dementia, a condition that is still not very well understood.
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“Very often, in the early stages in particular, people misunderstand and misinterpret the symptoms…It is attributed to old age; of course getting older is one of the risk factors for dementia. But then, dementia is a condition that individuals really cannot help. With early cognitive stimulations and the right kind of interventions, the quality of life of these people can be greatly enhanced,” she said.
Dr. Soumya Swaminathan also stressed the need for more trained caregivers, both for inpatient care and in the community. “It is one of the most difficult jobs and they should be compensated well,” she said.
Noting that data was another area in which more needed to be done, she said, “There is very little data on dementia. The World Health Organisation was trying to put together all the data on dementia from the [various] countries. One of the big gaps was data from low and middle income countries. Centres such as this can contribute both in identifying risk factors and on how to manage dementia in low income communities, low income settings and low income households.”
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Dr Soumya also said that many clinical trials were taking place around the world for treatments. “There is some progress, but we still do not have treatments that really make a difference. We certainly do not have a cure. We do not have treatments that can slow down the progression [of the disease] and most importantly, affordable treatments. Many of the treatments that have been developed, such as monoclonal antibodies are extremely expensive. We need much more research into interventions -- [this] could be medical interventions or other types such as cognitive stimulations -- and in prevention; on how we can prevent dementia when there are so many risk factors today,” she explained.
Dr. Soumya also launched the Mrs. Mina Swaminathan Dementia Research Fellowship on the occasion.
R. Seshasayee, chairperson, Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF), said dementia should be part of a research grid, and a registry should be developed. Viji Santhanam, executive chairman, Sundaram Finance, raised the need for more such facilities to take care of patients with dementia.
Sridhar Vaitheswaran, consultant, SCARF, said this year, the World Alzheimer’s Month was observed on the theme of ‘Never too early, never too late.’ “There is growing awareness, but there are also misconceptions about dementia,” he said. At the facility, two to three new patients are diagnosed with dementia in a week, he said, adding: “In the last two years, we have admitted 165 persons with dementia and other mental illnesses. The average length of stay of each person is 30 days.”
Thara Rangaswamy, vice chairperson, SCARF, Nisha Varghese, manager, Human Resources, Sundram Fasteners, Sanjay Pinto, advocate, columnist and author, R. Padmavati, director, SCARF and Anusha Kumar, consultant at SCARF also spoke.