It was Jamie Calandriello who said, a disease might hide the person underneath, but there’s still a person in there who needs your attention. So is the case of Dementia. As we join the Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) to celebrate the Eighth world Alzheimer’s Month, we do this from an understanding that Alzheimer patients deserve love, care, and attention. Since inception of the ADI, public health enlightenment as well as fighting the stigma against the Alzheimer’s disease has been a central focus of the association. The impact of this campaign is growing, but the stigma and misinformation that surrounds dementia remains a global problem and challenge. This year’s theme is “Let’s talk about dementia”. Through talking we help break down the fear and the stigma and we encourage people to seek out information, support and advice.
Alzheimer disease, one of the major types of dementia is a neurodegenerative disorder which affects memory, cognition, behavior and emotion, causing the individual suffering from dementia to have challenges remembering past experiences or making it hard to make sound judgments. Dementia is not a respecter of social, economic or even geographical status as it affects individuals of all races. Most often than not, Alzheimer like most neurodegenerative conditions are progressive, that is, symptoms start slowly and gradually get worse, making them exhibit features such as memory loss that disrupts daily life, challenges in solving problems or doing basic tasks, confusion with time and place, trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationship, constantly misplacing things and losing ability to retrace steps, withdrawal from work and social activities, changes in moods and personality.
The World Health organization states that that every 3 seconds, someone develops dementia that means by extension, 28,800 new cases of dementia are reported daily. For a condition that affects virtually every sphere of an individual’s life and one within such a global burden, a lot needs to be done.
It is encouraging that the WHO adopted the global plan of action on the public health response to dementia, a plan that started in 2017 and would run till 2025. It created strategic plans for government of 194 member states of the WHO to improve dementia awareness, handle dementia as a public health priority, reduce the risk of occurrence, improve diagnosis, treatment, and care, support care givers and improve data and research. A lot still needs to be done at different levels of society to help both prevent and manage dementia whether as individual with dementia, as care givers of people with dementia , the general public, or the government, the onyx is on us to prevent dementia and fight the sigma by talking about it.
ROLE OF PHARMACIST IN MANAGING ALZHEIMER’S DISEASES
In almost every area of pharmacy practice, pharmacists are very likely to encounter a patient with Alzheimer’s disease and/or a caregiver. Therefore, it is imperative for pharmacists to keep abreast of new developments in research and pharmacologic therapies regarding the disease.
- Pharmacists can be a vital resource for both patients and their caregivers, thereby improving quality of life.
- Pharmacists can support people living with dementia in Medication adherence by number of ways; Simplified administration instructions, Telephone follow-ups ,Involving patients and care givers more in their care through self-monitoring Simplified dosing regimens
- Managing symptoms of dementia.
- Pharmacists also have an important role in identifying and resolving drug- related problems involving medications that may exacerbate the symptoms of dementia.
#break the silence, talk about dementia #PLSP, #TeamSynergy.