"Trained attendants and respite care for dementia: Observations from India."

"As per the Dementia India Report 2010, there are an estimated 37 lakh (3.7 million) dementia patients in India and 6 respite care facilities (facilities for fulltime stay, short term or long term) that are specialized for dementia patients. 
I’ve summarized some data alongside, and you can see the contact information for all six at my website’s resource page here: Dementia Caregiver Resources across India. Add to it the day care facilities, the optimistic estimate of capacity oriented for care suitable for dementia patients is 400.

Four hundred, across India, a nation where the number of estimated patients is 3.7 million.

A massive gap, indeed........."

...............

"not a single person has ever told me:

We got, on our first attempt, an excellent, hygienic, reliable caregiver who is honest and hardworking, and takes care of the patient without supervision and frees us of all worry and never takes leave. Our patient is always happy with this attendant, and the attendant is always cheerful and happy, too."

............

"When I start telling the person needing attendants that this process is not so simple, many do not believe me, and some think that I’m just someone who doesn’t know, or am discouraging them because I do not provide trained attendants. Persons who contact me sometimes hope/ dream that they can, just with a phone call, reach an agency that supplies such attendants as soon as you call them. 


Some go a step further and assume that they will not need to take even a day off, and this new attendant will report for work one morning and the family can leave the patient under the care of this attendant (who is supposedly trained) and go off for work an hour later, free of worry about this aspect of their complicated busy lives.

Perhaps."

 READ MORE AT: http://swapnawrites.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/trained-attendants-and-respite-care-for-dementia-observations-from-india/