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Posted: Wednesday 15 July, 2020 at 4:22 PM

Alzheimer’s Association Celebrates 6th Anniversary

By: Alzheimer’s Association, Press Release

    14th July, 2020 -- The Alzheimer’s Association of St Kitts and Nevis will celebrate its sixth anniversary on July 24, 2020.

     

    The Association came into being in 2014 when Dr. Joan Rawlins joined with a group of persons from the Moravian Senior Club and the Ripple Institute to form an association which they were sure would meet an unfulfilled need in the Federation. The stated Mission of the Association is “to improve the quality of life of persons affected by Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias and to provide support to their care givers”. In so doing the Association seeks to raise awareness about the disease; to establish a national family/care-giver support group; to educate family, patients and caregivers about the disease and to encourage government to implement policies to improve the lives of persons with dementia, their families and caregivers.

     

    The Association is affiliated with Alzheimer’s disease international (ADI) which is the International Federation of the one hundred (100) Alzheimer’s Associations worldwide. ADI works with these Associations to improve the lives of people with Alzheimer's disease wherever they might be found, worldwide. 

     

    Over the course of these past six (6) years, our Alzheimer’s Association has held regular monthly meeting which are attended by persons with an interest in dementia, family caregivers and paid caregivers and individuals who are seeking an opportunity to volunteer. The monthly meetings, in pre Covid-19 time were help on the third Monday of each month at the Girl Guides Headquarters in Taylor’s Range. Since April, 2020 the members have kept in communication mainly via WhatsApp and emails. The meetings are used as an opportunity to educate the members and care givers about Alzheimer’s disease and best practices in the care of persons living with dementia. 

     

    Alzheimer’s disease is a type of dementia. Dementia is an umbrella term which is used to describe any condition that causes deterioration over time of different brain functions such as memory, thinking, recognition, language, emotion and behaviour. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, representing approximately 60-70 % of cases of dementia.

     

    Besides meetings, The Association operates a speaker’s bureau and responds to invitations to speak to Service clubs, churches and other community organizations. The Association holds a major Fund Raiser at Marshal’s every other year and a Fun Morning for Caregivers Annually.  The idea of the fun morning is to give the caregivers a respite day. A carefree day when they can relax and be free from their caregiving responsibilities.  The Fun morning is usually held in collaboration with the Moravian Senior Club of which many of our members are also members.

     

    Respite Grant

     

    Each year the Association provide two (2) Respite Grants to deserving caregivers of our association to enable them to take a brief break from their caregiving responsibilities.

     

    World Alzheimer’s Month is our biggest activity of the Year. The Month is commemorated each year in September. We used the month to create further awareness about Alzheimer's disease and to promote the work of the Association. Each year the Month has a theme. The theme for 2019 was “Every three Seconds” which refers to the statistics which informs us that every three seconds another person is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. 

     

    Worldwide there are more than 50 million persons living with Alzheimer’s dementia.

     

    At present we do not how many persons in the Federation are living with dementia. A survey would have to be done to make that specific determination.

     

    The need to develop a National Dementia Plan

     

    An important ambition which the group has is to see the Development of a National Dementia Plan. Such a plan would ensure that the Human Rights of people living with Dementia are full recognized and that special provision are made to ensure that all their needs are met. A prevalence survey would be the first step in such a plan. The Ministers of Health of the Caribbean Region in a Health Meeting with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and ADI on October 1, 2015) in Washington DC, signed an agreement to implement the PAHO 2015 - 2019 "Strategy and Action Plan on dementia among older persons". The target date for the plan was October 2019 and was adopted by all the ministers at that conference. It is the hope of our Association that St. Kitts and Nevis will be able to Develop a National dementia Plan in the near future.

     

    The Alzheimer's Association of St. Kitts and Nevis is also a member of the Alzheimer's Association of the Caribbean (AAC) and has regular online meetings for strategic planning and sharing of information. Twelve (12) members of the region including Barbados, Bonaire, Bahamas, Grenada, Jamaica, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and St Marten are members of the Alzheimer's Association of the Caribbean (AAC).

     

    The current members of the executive of our Association here in the Federation are: Ms. Rita Joseph, Ms. Clarita Richards, Mr. Charles Benjamin, Dr. Sam Rawlins, Mrs. Gwen Webbe, Mrs. Sharon Esdaille, Ms. Hyacinth Gumbs, Ms. Suzanna Lee, Ms. Marilyn Clifton and Dr Joan Rawlins.

     

    Dr. Joan Rawlins
    President, Alzheimer’s Association of St. Kitts and Nevis
    (869) 760 5182

     


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