Healthserve Supports the Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Seminar organized by DHA at the Family Gathering Centre, Al Mamzar
Healthserve Team proudly attended and supported the Alzheimer’s Support Group Session on 22nd March, 2018. Alzheimer support group aims to educate and raise awareness amongst the families, nurse and caregivers on how to deal with Alzheimer’s disease patients.
Dr Salwa Al Suwaidi, Geriatrician and Director of Family Gathering at DHA for elderly patients mentioned that “Alzheimer’s Disease requires complete medical assessment for diagnosis as there is no single test available at the moment and even when the condition is detected, the cause is often unknown. One of the symptoms is memory loss and often the patient resists accepting the symptom so family members should be alert about such signs, especially in elderly people and more so, if the person has a family history of the disease.”
Dr Salwa also advised that family members should be aware of the symptoms for early diagnosis such as forgetfulness, isolation, suspiciousness, irritability and loneliness. One of the biggest struggles of the caregivers in dealing with Alzheimer’s Disease was due to mood swings of the patients along with the time of the day (Sun downing Phenomenon).
The Family Gathering also provides support in terms of emotional, educational and social networking for the family and friends. Ms Julie Sales, Head Nurse for the training division, gave a very informative practical based presentation for the caretakers to deal with day to day issues of the Alzheimer’s patients stressing on the importance of ‘humane care’.
Healthserve was represented by our Medical Director, Dr Shekhar Mehta, who thanked Dr Salwa for inviting the Healthserve team for such an informative session on Alzheimer’s Disease and offered to support the group with the future sessions.
