LAHORE: The Alzheimer’s Pakistan has called for developing a national campaign across the country to raise awareness on dementia, highlight its symptoms and their progression, and how to seek help.

The demand was made on the basis of a research report conducted by the Alzheimer’s Pakistan, a team of researchers from the University of Southampton, at a research dissemination seminar here on Friday.

Principal investigator Prof Asghar Zaidi said “Dementia is a global health priority, but progress towards its understanding and treatment in low and middle-income countries has been slow, despite rapidly ageing populations”. He said he hoped the report would inform policymakers in Pakistan and across South Asia to help improve the lives of people with the disease and their caregivers.

The report stressed that more funding should be pumped in for affordable and accessible specialist dementia services, such as day care centres, dedicated hospital wards, staff and support groups.

The report authors recommended a focus on help in the home, as families in Pakistan were more likely to accept home-based care. He stressed that communication from religious leaders about dementia, both in terms of awareness raising and the acceptability to seek help and exemption from religious duties.

The report called for a greater emphasis on research and evidence informed policy making with knowledge transfer from research carried out in different regions of the world, taking into account cultural sensitivities.

The research found that the lack of awareness was aggravating dementia and its symptoms. The respondents, who were interviewed, attributed the disease to a range of factors, such as getting old, doing too much, stress, shock, social isolation and in more extreme cases, black magic. These misconceptions led to misunderstandings about care and prognosis. Perhaps most concerning is a strong stigma associated with the disease, or generally with any other mental health problems, the report explained.

An important finding was that persons with dementia mentioned their loss of sense of time of day and how this impacted on their ability to know when to pray.

Alzheimer’s Pakistan Patron Dr Yasmin Rashid said the number of people with dementia were increasing in Pakistan due to the increased life expectancy. She said it was high time that all the stakeholders including the government, medical professions, NGOs and the community joined hands and provided the much needed dementia care services in the country.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2018