Sri T.S. Santhanam Centre for Elderly Care in Chennai India Opened
The number of older people in India is at present 143 million – 10.3% of the total population – and will increase to 300 million (20% of the total population) by 2050. More than five million of those people have dementia already.
Most people with dementia in India are cared for by their families in their homes. Most of those primary caregivers are women of working age or older spouses. These caregivers experience high levels of burden, social isolation, and psychological problems including depression and anxiety.
SCARF (Schizophrenia Research Foundation) was delighted to open a new inpatient facility for dementia care in Chennai, India. Their consultant psychiatrist, Dr Vaitheswaran, said, “This is, to our knowledge, the first such facility to use “dementia-friendly” design in India. This will bridge an important gap in the service provision for persons with dementia in Chennai. We are grateful to the Dementia Services Development Centre, University of Stirling, UK, for providing invaluable advice to enable us to make our facility dementia friendly. We also thank the Dementia Services Development Trust for sponsoring our staff to visit Scotland to learn first-hand about the dementia services in the NHS. We could not have developed our services without all this support. We look forward to continue our collaboration in the future.” For more information contact Dr. Sridhar Vaitheswaran MD, MRCPsych
Assistant Director & Consultant Psychiatrist, Dementia Care in SCARF – DEMCARES, Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF) India, Chennai, India
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