Srinagar: A workshop was organized on Saturday for the “caregivers” of dementia patients on management and psychosocial support at ExpectCare Mental Health and De-addiction Clinic, here in the Hyderpora area of Srinagar.
This was the first-ever such workshop conducted in Kashmir despite a high prevalence of the condition, including many diseases like Alzheimer’s.
The condition, often associated with old age, is presently affecting the lives of more than 30 million people across the world and is expected to double by 2030.
“In India, 2.7% of the population is affected by dementia,” Dr. Fazl-e-Rub, a Psychiatrist and a de-addiction expert from Government Medical College Srinagar, said.
He said that there were myths and misconceptions regarding the condition as well as caregiving, “and the workshop was aimed to clear some of these false notions.” The workshop was live-streamed over social media to reach a broader audience and get them acquainted with the nuances of dementia.
The experts spoke at length about how caregiving was the most essential thing for patients suffering from dementia. “It is even more important than the Pharmacological aspect of the treatment, or in simpler words the medication,” Dr Tajammul Hussain, an expert in Geriatic Psychiatry said.
He explained that the condition was not curable and is, in most cases progressive, making caregiving the most important aspect of improving the quality of life of the patients.
“We should understand that it is a condition that is going to worsen every passing day. We should prepare ourselves as such and make things easier for these patients,” Hussain said.
He spoke in detail on the management of caregiving, finely outlining the most important different facets of it. “Making things simplest for such patients, for their cognitive system degenerates when they are inflicted with dementia. They will sometimes not understand even the simplest of the conversations,” he said.
Hussain emphasized the importance of being patient and well acquainted with the facts.
“Yes, there is a stigma but we need to take care of the basic things in such cases. Like dementia patients often tend to wander, and we must keep the people in our neighborhood in the loop and tell them about the condition of our family members,” Hussain said.
However, caregiving can be immensely taxing in many forms including psychological, physical, and financial terms.
“There are some simple tricks to tackle the burnout, the fatigue of the caregiving,” Dr. Masood Maqbool, Lecturer Clinical Psychology at GMC Srinagar, said, “Adequate knowledge, asking for help, self-care, taking time out, sharing the burden, and physical exercise are some of the points we need to focus on while we are giving care to dementia patients,”
He explained the points in detail to the people who attended the workshop. “The burnout, the fatigue is a human tendency and instead of feeling guilty, we should try and work around these hindrances and not let the caregiving affect us mentally or physically,”
Maqbool said that caregiving was a long process, often lasting years, and it was important to take care of oneself while we take care of our loved ones diagnosed with dementia.

Suhail A Shah