15th Founder’s Day of ARDSI- Delhi Chapter was observed by having an Interactive Session at Defence Services officer’s Institute (DSOI), Dhaula Kuan on March 8, 2009. It was attended by both serving and retired officers of the armed forces.  Our President, Smt. Nirmala Narula, Dr. Manjiri Tripathi and Dr. K.S Anand gave talks on Caregiving and medical aspects of Alzheimer’s and thereafter answered the questions raised by the participants.

Training of Caregivers: Caregiver’s Training was conducted at our Resource Centre for seven disadvantaged students.  Another session of training was conducted at Delhi State Council of Women, New Friends Colony for 26 students from Mangolpuri Basti. Another 20 students are to undergo  Caregivers Training from 8th September, 2009 at our resource centre. We plan to train 50 Caregivers this year.

Awareness Campaign: Raising awareness about AD remains our primary function. Visits for talks on AD followed by interactive sessions were very encouraging.  We could see that more and more people are getting to know about this debilitating disease. We visited a number of Clubs, RWAs and Old Age Homes for these sessions and also involved students of Universities, Colleges and Schools. It is important to involve the students as they are the pillars for care giving to the family’s elders.  We got very good response from students of Jamia Millia Islamia, St. Crispins Senior Secondary School, Gurgaon and  Chiranjeevi School, Palam Vihar, Gurgaon.

Home Visits: Counselors/volunteers from Delhi Chapter visit families of the AD patients whenever invited by them to guide them in their caregiving efforts. This year our counselors made 37 such visits.

Visitors to Our Resource Centre: A team of two Master Trainers, Sharp Barbara and Hazel Walker of Alzheimer’s Scotland had a fruitful two days interactive training session with our counselors/volunteer. Ideas and methodologies were shared and comparisons drawn about caregiving of Alzheimer’s patients. Karve Institute of Social Service, Pune sent fifteen students with their faculty members to visit our Resource Centre. They were briefed about our activities which was followed by  Q & A Session.

Seminars/Conferences/Forum:

• Asia/Pacific Conference on Ageing in Bali was organized by HelpAge International from 14-16 October 2008 in parallel to The Voice of Older People.  Delhi Chapter of ARDSI was invited to participate and was represented by Smt. Nirmala Narula.
• National Consultative Meeting Experts on “National Dementia Strategy” was organized  jointly by National Office and Delhi Chapter of ARDSI in collaboration with Centre of Physiotherapy and Rehablitation Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI)  on  30th & 31st January 2009. Plan to deliver strategy include- 

• Series of consultative meetings in different cities.
• Final meeting in Delhi Dec. 2009.
• National Office in Delhi.
• Collect more research material.
• Mobilize support from grant, foundation, service organization, corporate and philanthropists.

24th National Conference of Alzheimer’s  Disease: President,  Mrs. Nirmala

Narula participated in the 24th conference of Alzheimer’s Disease International   from 25-28 March, 2009 at Singapore. The theme of the conference was Dementia Engaging Societies Around the World. She chaired a session on “Life Style Issues” on 27 March, 2009 and presented a paper on “Dementia: Engaging Societies Around the World” on 28th March 2009.

ARDSI will observe World Alzheimer’s Day on 21 and 22 September, 2009 as follows:

 
PROGRAM

Note :   A photographic exhibition of Alzheimer’s patients world- wide by Ms. Cathy Greenblat will be on view at both the venues.

• A photographic exhibition titled “Ling with Alzheimer’s Disease” will be held at Delhi Hat from 20 September to 22 September, 2009.