About 3.2 million people in India are affected by Alzheimer's and other forms of Dementia. By 2016 there will be 113 million people over 60 and above. Of which 10% of them over 65 and almost half of them over 85 will have the disease.
Two Publications of ARDSI Calcutta
A short literature on the two publications
Background of the two Publications:
Alzheimer’s and other forms of irreversible progressive degeneration of brain disorders, collectively called dementia, make a new phenomenon to reckon with the world over. Billed as ‘the disease of the century’, dementia has been predicted by the World Health Organisation to be fast approaching to hit the mother earth in a mammoth proportion of an epidemic. The official statistics run as follows: The world population, currently surging at a rate of one new incidence every seven seconds, will touch 1 billion by 2050 against 30 million at present. India, slated to be the second worst hit country next only to China, will have 16.3 million demented people by 2050 against 3.5 million now.
Predominantly an old-age disorder, dementia is set to cast a devastating pressure on health and social care infrastructure of the country which is pathetically under-prepared at the moment to face the imminent epidemic. The Union government has started to tighten its belt and has been reported to have started the process of overhauling its policy of support for the elders, formulated way back in 1990, with special emphasis on dementia and its social implications.
The twin publications deal with this vast and comparatively new field of dementia, and, as such, are privileged maiden efforts on their own rights in the national scenario. The two books will find an ever-increasing number of buyers with the fast pace of spread of the disease.
PUBLISHER: The publisher of the two books, ARDSI Calcutta Chapter, is a specialised social organisation in the field of dementia in eastern and north-eastern part of India. The NGO, dedicated to the cause of providing care and support to the people with dementia and their families, is affiliated to the global dementia platform, London-based Alzheimer’s Disease International.
Understanding Dementia: Disease, Treatment & Care
Editor: Prof Dr Shyamal Kumar Das, MD, DM, Head of the Department of Neurology, Bangur Institute of Neurosciences, Kolkata
Co-Editor: Dr Neelanjana Paul, DPM, MD (Psychiatry)
Executive Editor: P. G. Datta Ray, MA (Economics), Journalist and Director (Policy & Programme), Alzheimer’s & Related Disorders Society of India, Calcutta Chapter (ARDSI Calcutta)
Foreword by Prof Dr N N Sarangi
Published by ARDSI Calcutta
Price: Rs 275.00
About the Book: This is a collection of 14 articles, with illustrations and images, dealing with the basic issues related with dementia – what dementia is, causes of dementia, various types of dementia and their manifestations, diagnosis, medical therapies, care giving to persons with dementia and the current trends in worldwide research in dementia. The authors of the articles are all experts and experienced professionals in their respective fields – eminent neurologists, neuro-psychologists, psychiatrists, radiologists, care consultants and care givers and researchers. What is commendable is their sincere efforts to make the subject easily comprehensible for a common man. The aim of this publication is to empower the mass with basic and authentic knowledge regarding dementia and related issues.
In the line of Alzheimer’s: The Mission Continues
Author: Brig (Retd) S. P. Bhattacharjya
Editor: P. G. Datta Ray
Foreword by Prof Dr N N Sarangi
Published by ARDSI Calcutta
Price: Rs 175.00
About the Book: This book, with its 16 pictures, deals with a very important, perhaps the most important, and the most difficult aspect of management of dementia – care giving. Brig (Retd) S. P. Bhattacharjya, author of the book, who is now at 84 years, has been the proud primary care giver for his wife who is now at the terminal stage of the dreaded Alzheimer’s disease. In the book, the author recounts, in a lively story-telling manner and with a scathing honesty, every minute detail of his care giving experience of 15 years, mistakes committed by him and lessons learnt. One gets to visualise the onset of the disease and how it does unfurl itself into various stages, casting even an active and intelligent individual out as a cipher. The highest point of the book is, perhaps, in its depiction and assertion of the right kind of attitude that a care giver should have in the difficult fight against dementia. The book will serve as a practical guide for every family, caring for a loved one with dementia, besides being an outstanding memoir of a soldier with a mission and a manifesto of love, that can say: “…. care giving to an Alzheimer’s patient need not be struggling through the storm only, but it’s possible to enjoy a bit of dancing through the rain as well”.
