It is great to see the introduction of cognitive stimulation therapy (CST ) in the Alzheimer Society of Ireland. While this is an expansion on what families are already doing, we need to revolutionise our interventions to the highest possible levels.
Today’s medical thoughts are that a cure for Alzheimer's is distant; so as well as diet and exercise we need a pre-clinical approach along with versatile, lasting, validated, intervention. To achieve a pre-clinical approach Brain Care Ireland, located in the Research and Innovation Centre in NUI Galway, has a three minute memory screening test to evaluate a person’s memory and then, based on the results, it can place the person on the MCI Remediation and Rehabilitation programme.
We need to diagnose early to provide abundant intervention time as the MCI programme can offset the onset and progress of Alzheimer's by up to five years. This window is by far the best available as the medication (Aricept ) regime only acts for between six and nine months, is only suited to one in six people, is expensive, and the side effects can be worse then the disease itself. The programme can be done anywhere including the comfort of your own home as we can monitor progress from anywhere in the world. During the course of the programme we can, in addition to viewing and monitoring results, do a timely three minute memory test to track memory progress.
The report Creating Excellence in Dementia Care maintains that future policy and practice should be influenced and guided by people with dementia and their families. The Alzheimer Society of Ireland is there for you, and according to new policy you are being empowered to choose interventions you want, so talk to the Alzheimer Society of Ireland about having these state of the art programmes available to those who need them. Remember, apart from keeping a person at home for up to five years you are also saving nursing home costs of €52,000 a year, plus the emotional hassle of daily visits.
Further details contact Brain Care Ireland, NUIG, www.braincare.ie/www memtrax.ie (three minute memory test ).
