News & Events

On 19 Dec, 2009, an awareness session was conducted at Madusudan Nagar Community hall, Malkajgiri, Sec-bad. Dr.Chandrasekhar and Ms Safiya represented ARDSI. Around 30 senior citizens attended the awareness session. Dr. Chandrasekhar provided an overview regarding dementia, signs and symptoms of dementia and their management.He also spoke about the nature of the disease and the behavioral changes caused due to the disease.

Ms Safiya then spoke about how ARDSI began and about the services provided by ARDSI. Problems faced by patients and the subsequent stress of caregiving was emphasized upon by giving practical examples. Differences between normal forgetfulness and dementia were also spoken about.

After this, a similar session was conducted in Vimaladevi Nagar near Madusudan Nagar. Dr Chandrasekhar and Ms Safiya repeated their talks.

Pamphlets and educational materials were distributed. Questions were welcomed. A lot of senior citizens expressed concerns regarding about their memory problems such as forgetting people's names and then remembering them after some time. Some persons also said that they forget where they place things and forget what they came to buy at a shop. Dr.Chandrasekhar asked more questions to them and then assured them their symptoms are age-related. He also said that if they had any further concerns they should get a check-up done. He spoke about treatable causes of dementia saying that these have to be ruled out and a clear history needs to be taken to make a diagnosis. Some members also asked if there is any chance of conducting free memory tests. Based on their suggestions The ARDSI representatives assured them that they would plan for conducting memory clinic camps for the senior citizens.Some others thanked the speakers for giving them the information and said that this should be telecasted on TV on health related programs. The audience was very active and asked a lot of questions.

The event was covered in Sakshi and Eenadu local zone Newspapers on 21st Dec,2009.