Dementia ~ "Living life with Dignity. "

Sitting in the warm comfort of my home sipping a warm cup of tea with the gentle hush of winter wind made my mind drift to thoughts about our elderly population in our society vulnerable to dementia who had sacrificed their comfort and toiled hard to give us a better life.

But running in this mad rat race, have we over time overlook their mental health problems and just brushed it under the carpet?

Dementia has become one of a glaring realities of this modern society, but how many of us have actually taken the time to understand the real problem? Have we just ignored it out of frustration when our parents have complained about forgetting their daily tasks or show a change in their behaviour and even lost interest in their hobbies? Standing at the threshold of this modern lifestyle, with everything just a click away, has led us to develop many mental health problems , in the course of time takes a tragic turn. Dementia is a mental process characteristic by cognitive disorder due to loss of nerve cells in the brain, which shows symptoms such as memory loss, difficulty in identifying time and place or showing repetitive behaviour.

In India, citizens over 65 years are quite prone to dementia. According to Global Burden of Disease in Lancet Public Health has outlined that in 2019, India had 3.84 million people under the grip of dementia, and this figure is expected to be around 11.44 million by 2050. It is further estimated that in India around 4 million people have some or other forms of dementia. What is more shocking is that even in developed nations like the US, there are about 6.5 million people (2022) and Japan has more than 4.6 million people under the grip of dementia. Despite such a large section of the global population facing the effects of dementia, it is a pertinent question whether our efforts have been enough to combat an illness that has become increasingly pervasive. There are movies like” URI – The Surgical Strike,” that briefly throw light on this topic, but we as a society have failed somewhere to draw a proper understanding and find a concrete solution for it.

Dementia not only affects the older category of people, but it also engulfs the younger group of our population. In India, it is estimated that around 5%-6% of our younger population gets affected due to genetic mutations, thereby putting 50% of the population at risk today. After the Pandemic of COVID-19, there has been a shift in our lifestyle and food habits, with our lives becoming sedentary. This has already led to a plethora of health-related issues.

Yes, dementia is not curable, yet some of its symptoms can be easily manageable through early detection and medications. Here, our role as a conscious child comes to the forefront, if we identify the early symptoms, such as memory loss that affects day-to-day life, language problems, irritability of mood, irrational thinking, hallucinations and pay a visit to a doctor we can help those who became victims of it and suffer throughout their remaining life in desperation and loneliness. It is rightly said, a stich in time saves nine.

We as a conscious citizens have to focus on the issue of dementia and collectively work to spread awareness and bring forth collective hands to make the life of our senior citizens a life of dignity and a life full of love. We can encourage this group to pursue their hobbies and provide them with a platform to display their talents, which they can do without any preconceived inhibitions. A small effort by us can help to drive away the feelings of loneliness and helplessness that they face in their journey. Keeping this in mind , we as a Conscious Citizens can firmly abide by the quote, “hands that rock the cradle, rule the world”and Our Citizens with right approach will prove the quote right in every sphere .

Sukriti Bhattacharjya