On September 21, 2014, the world is to celebrate the "World Alzheimer's Day" under the theme “Dementia: Can we reduce the risk?”. Its main purpose is to identify the challenges and hardships of Alzheimer's disease and shed light on the suffering of patients around the world. It also calls for exerting every effort and working unremittingly to enhance the health care sector and increase support for Alzheimer's patients and their families.
Alzheimer Disease:
It is a progressive cerebral disease that destroys brain cells, causing serious disorders with the faculties of memory, thinking and behavior. Furthermore, it severely affects the patient's life and work, as well as his pattern of social life. As time passes, the patient's case deteriorates continuously, and often leads to his demise. Nowadays, Alzheimer's disease is ranked the sixth major reason for death around the world. It is an incurable disease at the present.
It is named after the German physician Alois Alzheimer who had been the first to describe the disease in 1906, before the scientists of the past century managed to discover a lot of important facts about the disease.
Internationally Approved Date: Sept. 21st, 2014
Locally Approved Date: Thul Qa`dah 26th, 1435H
Theme of the World Alzheimer's Day 2014:
Targeted Group:
- Alzheimer's patients and their families
- The elderly
- Medical staff, including doctors, nurses, health educators and social workers
- The concerned health associations and institutions (such as Saudi Alzheimer Disease Association)
- All the community members
Objectives and General Messages of the World Alzheimer's Month 2014:
- To get acquainted with the ways to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease by changing the lifestyle and following a healthy system.
- To encourage providing and enhancing the health care services offered to Alzheimer’s (Dementia) disease and their families.
- To improve and reinforce the health awareness campaigns concerning Alzheimer’s disease around the world.
- To establish medical centers with the aim of supporting dementia patients and caring for them throughout the stages of the disease.
- To determine and record the number of dementia patients and organize an international campaign to change the governmental policies in collaboration with the World Health Organization "WHO".
- To evaluate and upgrade the quality of the health care services provided for the dementia patients, as well as the social welfare and other services.