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The Ministry of Health will collaborate with the Association of Patients and Family with Alzheimer's or other neurodegenerative diseases of Cartagena and its region (AFAL Cartagena) to contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of these users.
The Minister of Health, Manuel Villegas, and the president of the non-governmental organization AFAL Cartagena, Raúl Nieto, signed an agreement on the matter today at the City Council of Cartagena.
The document establishes the bases of collaboration of the entity with the University Hospital Complex of Cartagena for the development of information, advice, support, socio-sanitary activities and promotion of personal autonomy, prevention and awareness.
The scope of action is limited to the units of dementia, neurology consultations, geriatrics, psychiatry, health centers, day hospital and performances at the home of patients in the health areas of Cartagena and the Mar Menor.
As Villegas explained, "it is another step to advance the well-being of these patients and their families, providing them with not only health resources but also offering them tools with which they can propose future strategies and carry out prevalence and incidence studies, among others. ".
Likewise, it is an agreement with a multidisciplinary base that requires the collaboration of all the professionals involved in the care of those affected by Alzheimer's disease and where they intervene from neurologists and pharmacists to professionals in the fields of psychology, speech therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy.
Attention in Cartagena and Mar Menor
The Dementia Unit of the Neurology Service of the University Hospital Complex of Cartagena, located in the Hospital del Rosell, attended in 2019 192 patients with Alzheimer's disease in the areas of Health of Cartagena and Mar Menor.
During the past year, the unit received 800 new patients with cognitive impairment, of which, in 40 percent of the cases, a total of 320, the diagnosis of dementia was confirmed.
Of them, about 60 percent are Alzheimer's disease and the rest are other types of dementias.
The prevalence of patients with dementia in follow-up by this unit ranges from 3,500 to 4,000 patients, who are evaluated at some time throughout their illness.
Working with these patients through multidisciplinary teams and an early diagnosis are important, in order to start prescribing a treatment as soon as possible and curb cognitive impairment.
Alzheimer's incidence
Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disease suffered by more than 18,000 people over 65 in the Region of Murcia.
It currently affects 3.5 million people in Spain and is the leading cause of dementia in developed countries, as well as one of the leading causes of mortality among adults.
Alzheimer's disease is a progressive disease, characterized by a degeneration of nerve cells in the brain and a decrease in brain mass.
Approximately six out of ten people over 80 years of age can suffer from the symptoms that characterize this pathology: confusion, memory problems and speech loss.
With the increase in life expectancy there is a growing number of people affected by diseases associated with aging, such as dementia and, among them, the most frequent is Alzheimer's.
Source: CARM
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