KOCHI: One of the biggest challenges faced by families and officials is looking after persons in need of care and attention when their caregivers become Covid positive. Officials with the district social justice department said that this has been more so in case of patients with Alzheimer’s disease when they had to shift the patients from homes.
“We have got information about such persons from Asha workers, and through our elderly helpline. Moving patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s away from their caregivers is very traumatic because of their memory loss. Some get violent. We can’t isolate them at home and often have to shift them to some other safe shelter home,” said district social welfare officer Subair K K.
One of the caregivers, a woman, died, and her husband is now an inmate at the government-owned dementia care home at Edavanakkad in the district. “We have been getting calls from all over the state and even from other states because people are not able to manage these patients. However, our home is especially for the BPL families and once we mention our conditions, many look for alternative homes. Our home is meant for people from economically weak background,” said Lijo, coordinator, dementia care home, Edavanakkad.
At present, there are 19 inmates in the home, which has a capacity to accommodate 25 persons.
To raise awareness as part of the World Alzheimer’s Day on Tuesday, the social justice department is organizing an online talk on ‘Early detection of dementia’ by Dr Robert Mathew, neurological and joint secretary general, Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders Society of India (ARDSI).
