Tag Archives: dementia
Charity urges dementia awareness over festive period
Sunday 23 December 2012
As families gather for the festive period, a charity is urging people to look out for the signs of dementia in elderly relatives.
The Alzheimer’s Society said Christmas was often the only time families saw each other all year.
The charity has called for people to look out for symptoms in relatives.
Initial signs of the condition, which is caused by diseases of the brain, may include short-term memory loss that affects every day life, problems with thinking or reasoning, or unexplained anxiety, anger or depression.
It is also advising anyone concerned that they may have dementia to visit their GP to get a proper diagnosis.
Pioneering Dementia research projects receive £22 million government boost
Twenty one pioneering research projects to boost dementia diagnosis rates and trial ground breaking treatments have been selected to receive a share of £22million of Government funding, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced today.
Visiting pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly’s UK dementia research centre, the Health Secretary emphasised the crucial role of medical research in making breakthroughs in the prevention and treatment of dementia, whilst ensuring that research can help people with dementia live well with the condition today.
The funding was awarded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) and was designed to cover all areas of scientific activity relevant to dementia, across the fields of care, cure and cause, including prevention.
Why bus drivers are being taught about dementia
By Jane Dreaper Health correspondent, BBC News
Thousands of bus drivers around Britain are being given special training so they can help passengers with dementia.
Drivers Chris Peter and Krystyna Ryan took part in the dementia awareness training
It’s part of an initiative by the Prime Minister which is trying to encourage everyone to be more aware of the needs of older people who have dementia, to help them in their daily lives.
I watched a training session at a First Group depot in an industrial part of north-west London. It is home to more than 100 buses, and a work base for 300 drivers.
Upstairs, 11 members of staff gather for what proves to be a hard-hitting couple of hours. It begins with a simple memory test.
The trainer, Keith Sheard, promises the drivers an easy exercise. He asks them to draw a picture of both sides of a 1p coin, with as much detail as they can remember.
He jokes: “Dead easy this – you handle these coins every day!”
Over time, the dementia will come back and take everything from you.”
Keith Sheard Trainer
