MEDIA reports said dementia disabilities which are post stroke physical and mental disorders cause severe loss of memory and thinking ability of patients. Patients therefore need special care from family, society and the government. But as per disclosure of the Director General (DG) of Health Services, the government does not have any separate programme to address their problem from which approximately three lakh people are now suffering in Bangladesh. The number will increase to 14 lakh by 2050.
The fate of elderly dementia patients are in poor hands in the country where we can neither treat nor take care of them properly. In spite of the growing number of people needing the treatment and specialized care, most hospitals in the country do not have programs in place to make sure that the patients’ families are fully informed about the illness and how to take care of the illness in right way. In Bangladesh, most nurses are trained to deal with physical illnesses but not trained to properly deal with dementia patients. Hospitals are also not appropriately equipped to take care of elderly patients suffering from dementia related sickness.
Experts in the field said, elderly dementia patients need to be taken care of as if they are children while they also suffer from fragile mental state. As soon as their problems are addressed, patients mainly the elderly ones should be discharged to put to the hands of trained nurses and medical staff to handle them properly in homely and clinical facilities. Medical staff all over the country should therefore need to improve their knowledge and skill and the government must work together with other organizations to provide special training to them. Families should also learn how to use the tools to handle the dementia patients. The government needs to develop appropriate policies which help support such patients and proper awareness needs to be raised so that it brings about a significant change in our outlook towards the dementia patients. New policies also need to be put to good use otherwise any effort to take care of such illness cannot, and will not bring improvement to their condition.
Hospitals should be asked to improve their standards to take care of dementia patients. They should also make new arrangements so that such patients can use specialized hospital beds. It is unfortunate that helping people with dementia ailment and proper caring for them is not on our top priorities for many hospitals. The government and hospitals’ management need to address the issue immediately and start making arrangement for the rising number of dementia patients to get cure and reduce their sufferings.
