Dr Hanadi Al Hamad. Pic: Baher Amin / The Peninsula
The Memory Clinic at Rumailah Hospital of Hamad Medical Corporation follows a simplified referral system and an increased number of people are seeking treatment at the clinic due to growing awareness, says a senior official.
Awareness about the importance of receiving professional advice and medical assistance for memory problems, especially related to Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, has increased the number of patients, said Dr Hanadi Al Hamad, Chair of Geriatrics and Long-term Care Department at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC).
“There is an increased awareness among people due to outreach programmes. We have a simple referral system. Patients to the clinics can be referred to the clinics by any hospital or clinic in the country. Some people even contact us on our mobiles, and we don’t discourage them, we help them get into the correct referral system because we want to make things easy for people,” said Dr Al Hamad speaking on the sidelines of a public event held in the Education City recently on issues faced by people with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia and their families.
At present, the two memory clinics are open at the Rumailah Hospital and on an average eight to ten people are seen per week at a clinic.
Each clinic has a geriatrician, a psycho-geriatric consultant, a specialist and an occupational therapist who assists with the cognitive treatment of the patients.
The multi-disciplinary centre offers psycho-geriatric assistance to the elderly suffering from memory loss — dementia — and referred by any hospital across the country. At the clinic, each patient is evaluated for at least one hour before treatment begins. Follow-up treatment is required every three to six months to check the effectiveness of the medication.
“As part of the clinic, we also do the behavioural assessment to identify the behavioural problems, and set up a treatment plan. Also, besides the medical side, we sit with the family and with care-givers and talk to them. Because it’s very important for the caregiver and the family to understand that the behaviour of a person with dementia is not due to any intention, but due to a disease,” said Dr Mani Chandran, a Consultant Geriatric Psychiatrist at HMC.
“Due to awareness, we get more patients now, and so we have two clinics and see around eight to ten patients a week. We also do home visits, in exceptional cases, and if the patients cannot be brought to the hospital,” he added.
According to the Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI), an estimated 1,000 dementia cases are prevalent in Qatar and it will increase to 49,000 by 2050. However, a community survey is set to begin to assess the accurate prevalence of the disease.
To align with the objectives of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in fighting dementia, Qatar has a National Dementia Plan and the HMC is offering timely diagnosis of dementia, geriatric memory services and work on creating referral pathway, provide post diagnostic support such as behaviors liaison services, and homecare services.
