President of the Barbados Alzheimer’s Association, Pamelia Brereton, shares a light moment with Archdeacon Eric Lynch after the service.
President of the Barbados Alzheimer’s Association, Pamelia Brereton, says persons as young as 40 are being diagnosed with dementia.
Brereton said that this reality reinforces the need for more persons to pay attention to the condition and to look out for those who have been diagnosed with it. She was speaking yesterday morning during a service at the St. Luke’s Anglican Church, where the Association gathered to mark World Alzheimer’s Day, which will be celebrated later this week.
Her comments came as she said that dementia is now an epidemic worldwide, and it is the hope of the Alzheimer’s Association to see that everyone gains the necessary knowledge to care for their loved ones and themselves should the condition affect them.
One way to achieve that, Brereton said, is for persons to take part in a voluntary training programme the Association has been offering, which she explained is aimed at training persons to care for family members and to train volunteers who can go into various institutions and assist with looking after persons with dementia.
Meanwhile, she said that while there are currently no statistics for Barbados relative to the condition, in 2014 it was estimated that there were over 4 000 persons who had the condition, which she noted is hereditary.
“You can imagine how people out there are suffering because we are living in an aged population, an ageing society. Therefore, you will find a lot more people who are coming down with the disease,” she said.
Referring then to the theme of World Alzheimer’s Day this year, ‘Let’s Talk About Dementia: End the Stigma’, she said it is a rallying call for more persons to get involved and assist persons who are diagnosed with the disease.
“In terms of dementia, we are really, really in a crisis and we need to start taking care of each other. I don’t believe we are going to have all the facilities to accommodate persons with dementia, therefore this is why the training is so important for you to look after your loved ones at home. Most people do not want to put their families in a day-care centre or do not want to put their families in a hospital or do not want to put their family members in a nursing home. But if they had the knowledge to care for them, I believe it would be most helpful,” she stated.
Brereton added that she would like to see every church in this country have a support group for dementia. In that vein, she challenged St. Luke’s to start such a group, promising that if they do, she would come and help to “get things moving”.
“People with dementia are still people who have worth and dignity; they are deserving of respect as any other human being… It is time to wake up and start looking out. Can’t you see what’s going on out there in the world? It’s becoming a mess and so are we. So it is time to wake up, take Alzheimer’s seriously, take yourself
seriously and let’s love and look after each other,” she contended. (JRT)