Elderly People Are Increasingly Experiencing Memory Loss At 50 Upward In Kebbi – NGO Decries.
Elderly People Are Increasingly Experiencing Memory Loss At 50 Upward In Kebbi – NGO Decries.
The Behavioural Health Foundation of Nigeria (BHFN), an NGO, has decried the increase of memory loss (amnesia) by elderly people from the age of 50 and above in Kebbi State.
Dr Bioku Ayodeji Abas, the founder of the NGO and a Consultant on Psychiatric at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Binin Kebbi, lamented this in an interview with newsmen in Birnin Kebbi on Sunday.
He said,” We discovered lately that many people are coming with the memory problem at the age of 50 years and above, and the trend is becoming increasing.
“Some of the patients, who are our fathers and mothers, have amnesia, and you see them wandering, urinating, defecating unannounced and uncontrolled and they don’t know what they are doing and some have even forgotten the names of their children!
“Imagine how some of these people who contributed their quota to the development of the society, and are now left helpless and oblivion?”
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According to him, this is the time to take care of them as there are many ways to prevent or manage the situation if proper care is given to the patients.
Abas said that the NGO had been taken care of the elderly people with memory loss incident, adding that the foundation had been going to communities, identifying and screening the patients with their instruments to see the level of the loss.
“The aim is to know whether they have dementia or not, and provide some little help in terms of giving them drugs, at least, to stop the memory loss being progressing; if the condition is not reversing and also educate people so that they will not get there,” he said.
Abas said the NGO was formerly established in 2019 with the hope of achieving optimum mental health for people via community based scientific approach, among others.
“The issue of mental health is so primitive that people don’t know that mental health is manageable.
” People view is as spiritual attack and they go to other places to seek help, and by the time they come here, the illness has degenerated to something that you can’t do much.
“We want to correct that notion that this is manageable; people can be health, and we want to change the perspective and offer evidence based treatment.
“We trained over 42 social and health workers from the 21 local government areas of the state on how to recognise common mental illness, including drug abuse as the global treatment of health mental issue now is community based because the outcome of the treatment is better if people are treated close to their house,” he said.
The founder commended the collaborative efforts of state government and called on well- to – do individuals to assist the NGO in its efforts to promote mental health care service in the state.
Elderly People Are Increasingly Experiencing Memory Loss At 50 Upward In Kebbi – NGO Decries.
