Dementia groups urge action amid surging incidents

• By Cheng Ming-hsiang and Jake Chung / Employees reporter, with workers author

Dementia advocacy teams yesterday urged the federal government and the general public to take motion towards the rising variety of incidents of individuals with dementia going lacking, citing Taipei Metropolis Authorities statistics displaying 179 incidents final yr.

Fang Ting-gung (方定工), an officer at Nangang Police Station in Taipei, mentioned on Sunday final week that older individuals with dementia is perhaps “mentally caught” in a time way back, main them to assume that they need to go to work.

This may occur in the midst of the night time or in unhealthy climate, which could imperil their bodily well being, he added.

Photograph copied by Cheng Ming-hsiang, Taipei Instances

Whereas police use a facial recognition system to establish individuals with dementia they’ve picked up, the system solely finds matches for about 50 p.c of them, as there aren’t any latest pictures of them out there within the system, Fang mentioned.

Cops may need to go from door to door to discover a lacking individual’s house, he mentioned.

Fang urged individuals with kin with dementia to outfit them with tracker bracelets and set up gadgets that stop them from leaving house unaccompanied.

There are about 8,700 individuals with dementia in Taipei, however the Taipei Division of Well being has solely obtained 1,751 functions for tracker bracelets, or a 20 p.c uptake, the division mentioned.

It could proceed to advertise the bracelet program, collaborate with the police to ascertain a fingerprint database and is contemplating a subsidy for GPS gadgets for individuals with dementia, the division mentioned.

Taiwan Alzheimer Illness Affiliation secretary-general Tang Li-yu (湯麗玉) mentioned that the households of individuals with dementia ought to undertake a number of measures, together with updating the member of the family’s ID card with a latest {photograph}.

They need to additionally notify neighbors that they’ve a member of the family with dementia in order that they can assist them in the event that they wander away, Tang mentioned.

They need to additionally think about using daycare providers, he mentioned.

Federation for the Welfare of the Aged secretary-general Chang Shu-ching (張淑卿) mentioned that tracker bracelets have over the previous few years change into safer and extra trendy.

Nevertheless, Taipei’s bracelet program will not be built-in with these of different municipalities, and altering that may make it extra environment friendly, Chang mentioned.

The central authorities ought to improve efforts to coach the general public on dementia, because the situation is anticipated to change into extra prevalent in Taiwan’s getting older society.