Eleven of the 1,077 recipients of the National Assistance Board’s (NAB) Home Care programme are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
This was disclosed by Chairman of the NAB, Maria Boyce, while delivering the feature address at an Alzheimer’s Training Seminar entitled "Dispelling the Myths", earlier today, at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
The seminar, which was hosted by the NAB, in collaboration with the Barbados Alzheimer’s Association and the National Committee on Ageing, marks World Alzheimer’s Day on September 21, and was designed to sensitise care givers about Alzheimer’s disease.
Through a multimedia presentation, Ms. Boyce highlighted various facts about the disease in an effort to "dispel the myths". She stressed that memory loss, which is one of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, is not a natural part of ageing and warned that the disease does not only affect older persons.
The NAB Chairman noted that with an increasingly ageing population, such as Barbados’, the incidence of Alzheimer’s will also increase. She, therefore, advised members of the society to "understand the disease and prepare for the inevitable".
Ms. Boyce stated that "the nature of the disease necessitates high levels of care which will need to be provided over a number of years". She further suggested that persons attending to Alzheimer’s sufferers also be cared for by establishing respite care facilities.
Approximately 3500 Barbadians have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. sharifa.medford@barbados.gov.bb