January is Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, coinciding with many people having recently seen their relatives and starting the new year broke.
Alzheimer’s Calgary executive director Barb Fergusen outlined the significance of Alzheimer’s awareness as well as the reason the event is being held so soon after the start of the year.
“The purpose of this national awareness campaign is to increase public knowledge of this extremely serious illness. It takes place in January each year. When family members are together during the holidays, people frequently start to detect symptoms, according to her. “Because we receive a lot of calls this month, January is a really important month to have it at this crucial time.”
This month, a lot of questions are being raised because people were together over the holidays and may be beginning to see changes in their family members.
She clarified that Alzheimer’s Calgary holds numerous educational sessions and outreach activities as part of their program. This month’s public engagement session is named Talking About Dementia, and it takes place on January 27. Those who are interested are welcome to attend and talk with a dementia expert.
“I really encourage people who have questions to call our dementia support navigators, and we also do a lot of online programming and education,” Fergusen added. “We are here to serve, and Strathmore is unquestionably a very significant part of our service area.
Our dementia support navigators are licensed social workers who provide individuals with genuine emotional support, linkages to further community resources, and question-answering.
According to Fergusen, some people are merely interested in learning more about Alzheimer’s, while others are noticing various symptoms of the illness and want to know what they can do to help their loved ones.
Disruptive memory loss, poor judgment, a loss of spontaneity and initiative, losing track of dates or current location, taking longer than normal to perform routine tasks, asking the same questions over and over, or forgetting previously learned material are some symptoms to watch out for.
It encompasses far more than just memory. That’s actually when you begin to see alterations in an individual’s capacity to carry out previously known jobs, according to Fergusen. It’s possible that they used to brew coffee every day and have since grown a little less sure of how it’s done.
