Resources for dementia care: Bangalore

This city-wise page contains resources specific for dementia care in Bangalore, for the convenience of caregivers of patients of Alzheimer’s Disease and other forms of dementia. [read disclaimer]

• Facilities for patients of Alzheimer’s/ other dementias
• Helplines and major information sources for elders
• General tips for locating relevant resources in a city
• Bangalore-related dementia news

Facilities for patients of Alzheimer’s/ other dementias

Dementia helpline: 9342730936 OR 9342730959 (run by ARDSI Bangalore Chapter)

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Helplines and other resources for elders

Elders Helpline: 1090, 080-22943226, run by Nightingales Medical Trust and Bangalore City Police. Read about it here.
Dignity helpline: (080) 4151 1307, run by Dignity Foundation (Website: http://dignityfoundation.com)

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General tips for locating relevant resources:

• A list of local services can usually be obtained by surfing the Internet using keywords and the name of the city, such as “home nursing Bangalore”, “dementia care Bangalore”, “old age homes Bangalore.”
• Combine your search string with various versions of the city name in searches, such as Bangalore, Bengaluru, Bengalooru. So, a search could be “old age homes Bengaluru” or “dementia Bengalooru”
• The larger hospitals of the city will usually have memory clinics to help the initial diagnosis of a patient. Search for “memory clinic Bangalore” and other such phrases.
• The reception/ nurses at local hospitals often know about agencies that supply attendants/ nurses for home care.
• Many large path lab services also provide home pickup of blood samples.

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Bangalore-related dementia news

Some links to Bangalore-based resources, news events and training:

• Elder-care programs in Bangalore: In an interview published in Mybangalore.com, Dr. Radha Murthy describes the various elder-care related programs she manages in Bangalore, and states that over 500 senior citizens from various socio-economic groups benefit daily from these. Programs that benefit of patients of Alzheimer’s and other dementias are also described. Read the report here: Dr. Radha Murthy, paving the way for elder care in Bangalore
• Dementia training program in Bangalore: A 5-day training program was held in Bangalore on February 1 to 5, 2011, to create awareness about dementia and train caregivers for managing patients. Read the training announcement and organiser details here.
• Celebrations with dementia patients in a residential care facility in Bangalore: Times of India reports that, to celebrate New Years Day at the Nightingales Centre, around 30 elders would meet the dementia patients, cook for them and put up a cultural show on New Year’s eve. Read the article: Giving them a sense of time again. Another celebration, this time for Republic Day 2011, involved hearing impaired volunteers — 15 from Enable India and seven from iVolunteer — visiting the centre to interact with the patients and paint with them. Read the report: Bangalore’s Alzheimer’s patients will remember Republic Day celebration.
• Research using stem cells therapy: Dr N K Venkataramana, neurosurgeon, BGS Global Hospital in Bangalore has being working in the area of using stem cell therapy for degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’sand has published a peer-reviewed paper on the use of stem cells for patients suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. He claims that the technique will also be effective in other diseases where brain cells have died prematurely and there is loss of neural networks. Read news reports Oct 26, 2010, Times of India report here and here.
• Bracelet for wandering problem: On September 21, 2010, World Alzheimer’s Day, Bangalore-based Nightingales Medical Trust introduced a bracelet aimed to help trace dementia patients who may have wandered. Nightingales Trace, they claim, is a non-removable ID-bracelet with the patients ID and phone numbers, and will be placed on the wrist of the patient. In case the patient is found wandering, this can be used to notify the relatives of the patient’s whereabouts. Reports of the launch, done by the Karnataka Governor, are here: ID-bracelet to help Alzheimer’s patients, here: Caring for the Aged at the Click of a Button, and here(Bracelets to help identify dementia patients). A quote:
  

  Dr. Murthy said Alzheimer’s patients, in a state of inability to remember names and addresses, often get lost for not only hours, but also for days and months, much to the dismay of the family members. “During such periods of wanderings, they often suffer dehydration, hunger, falls or accidents, leading to injuries and even death,” she said.

• Dementia awareness and mobile screening: A news report of July, 2010, describes a mobile screening campaign held by Bangalore-based Nightingales Medical Trust at Sankhey Tank, where leaflets were distributed from a small helpdesk, and morning walkers were told about dementia and available screening tests. Read the article for more details: Going mobile about dementia awareness.

You can also search this site by typing the word “Bangalore” in the search box in the sidebar, to get all the pages on the site that have anything related to “Bangalore”.

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Disclaimer: The resources/ links provided here are intended for information and convenience, and are not in any way intended to be an endorsement for the resource. Also, facilities offered keep changing, so please contact the organisations to get up-to-date information.

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