Association calls for home care services for Alzheimer’s patients

HEALTH authorities should provide care in the home for people with Alzheimer’s disease, the head of the Alzheimer’s Association has said.

İzlem Sönmez made the plea to Health Minister İzlem Gürçağ Altuğra at a recent meeting, during which she spoke of the difficulties that patients and their families experience.

Ms Sönmez said that while it is predicted that there will be nearly 115 million Alzheimer’s patients in the world by 2050, there is no clear data on the disease and dementia in the TRNC.

She requested a committee be formed to provide information such as the number of patients and a breakdown by region and gender.

Ms Sönmez also requested that an “integrated and inclusive national health plan” specific to these patients be prepared and that steps should be taken “to ensure that Alzheimer’s and dementia patients receive care and support worthy of human dignity”.

Mrs Altuğra said that work has begun to improve home care services, and that Alsancak has been chosen as a pilot area to “identify Alzheimer’s patients who need care at home and to provide this in cooperation with the Alzheimer’s Association”.

Ms Sönmez also shared the results of a survey conducted by the Alzheimer’s Association in 2019 with the minister.

The findings showed that 55.4 per cent of respondents stated that services provided to Alzheimer’s patients were “inadequate”.

When asked “What are the services you want to be provided by the state regarding Alzheimer’s disease?”, 41.6 per cent said “free home care services” and 29.7 per cent replied that “special care homes and facilities should be set up for

Alzheimer’s and dementia patients”.

“Alzheimer’s disease can last for many years, does not improve and even makes patients bedridden,” Ms Sönmez said.

“It is essential to provide home care services, especially for patients in advanced stages of the disease. Our members are suffering because the people who will care for their patients lack training, and care costs are exorbitant.”

Ms Sönmez said there is also a need for more “daytime care homes” where Alzheimer’s and dementia patients in the early and middle stages of their conditions can “socialise and not be isolated from society”, which would “improve the quality of their life and delay the transition to the next stage of the disease”.

She added that the only such care facility in North Cyprus is run by Değirmenlik Municipality.