What is Alzheimer’s disease?
Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia. Dementia is not a specific disease – it is an ‘umbrella’ term that describes a host of symptoms. Alzheimer’s disease leads to problems with memory, thinking and behaviour. It is a degenerative brain disease with the following common symptoms:
- Memory loss that disrupts daily life
- Difficulties in basic planning or solving basic problems
- Challenges completing familiar tasks
- Confusion with time or place
- Trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships
- Difficulties in speaking or writing
- Misplacing things and losing the ability to retrace steps
- Impaired judgment
- Withdrawal from work or social life
- Changes in mood or behaviour
Source: www.alz.org
Alzheimer’s disease in Nigeria
If you are a member of the ‘sandwich generation’, ie you are in the position where you have to care for not only young children but also for elderly parents, then Alzheimer’s is likely to be an additional layer of challenge that you might face. The prevalence and number of cases of dementia have increased greatly in the country over the last two decades. Unfortunately, in Nigeria, several communities still link dementia to normal ageing, and far too many people living with dementia are stigmatized and abandoned in the belief that their condition is beyond any medical intervention. For this reason, many people who are sadly living with dementia delay going to see a doctor and, as a consequence, experience desperately poor outcomes. This is compounded by poor mental health services access, which is partly a result of a lack of financial resources.
The Gabi-Williams Alzheimer’s Foundation
The burden of dementia in Nigeria is poorly understood. The Gabi-Williams Alzheimer’s Foundation (GWAF) is a charity organization established to promote Alzheimer’s disease awareness and reduce its related stigma in Nigeria. The Foundation also works to identify and strengthen the available patient and caregiver infrastructure for Alzheimer’s disease in Nigeria and has a strong focus on caregiver training, education and financial support. GWAF is a partner of the Federal Ministry of Health and recognized by the Alzheimer’s disease International.
GWAF was founded on 11 September 2017 in honour of the life and work of late Dr. Gabisiu Ayodele Williams, an occasion on which, though unwell at the time, he briefly and memorably attended. The Foundation was inaugurated by his wife, Dr. Mrs. Abisola Gabi-Williams and his children in his honour, on the occasion of his 80th birthday celebrations, after a short illness and after himself battling with Alzheimer’s disease for ten years. Dr Gabi Williams, a pioneer of public health, died on Friday 27 July 2018.
Since its inception, GWAF has undertaken an impressive number of highly commend interventions and programmes. These include dementia awareness programmes and training and capacity building for stakeholders, caregivers and families of Alzheimer’s patients.
GWAF has conducted several awareness campaigns in secondary schools in Lagos State under the Hip-Hop School pilot project. The purpose of campaigns such as these is to create awareness and understanding of Alzheimer’s disease among the younger generation, who are often tasked with the responsibility of looking after their elders, even from a young age. The GWAF Art for Alzheimer’s Disease Project held in 2018, another highlight of the Foundation’s achievements to date, successfully rolled out three in-house ‘train-the-trainers’ capacity building workshops for carers and stakeholders, aimed at equipping the GWAF community members. In 2019, the Foundation conducted two grass-roots community sensitization and awareness program in Mushin, Lagos.
In 2020, undeterred by the Covid-19 pandemic the Foundation held a series of Zoom forums aimed at training carers amongst the GWAF community members to advance the quality of care for people living with dementia. The first of these highly successful forums was a swift response to the Covid-19 pandemic, titled ‘The impact of COVID -19 – a public health crisis for the people living with dementia and their caregivers’. A second Zoom session, held on 20 June 2020, was titled ‘Caring for the Carer’. This particular session was held to commemorate World Carer’s week. The two sessions emphasized the wellbeing of the carer and the importance for caregivers to prioritize their own personal health, recognizing that doing so impacts positively on the productivity of the carers and the lives of the people they are caring for.
The 2020 Annual Lecture, called “Caring for the Carers”, took place online on 14 September 2020. The Lecture focused on the communication skills that will enhance the productivity of carers and the lives of the people they are caring for.
During World Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, the Foundation used multiple approaches, in addition to its existing social media platforms, to disseminate Alzheimer’s Awareness infomercials across Lagos. The Board Secretary, Professor Jide Gabi-Williams of the University of Columbia, USA, in his press release to mark the World Alzheimer’s Day, called for early diagnosis and increased awareness.
Support the work of the Foundation
You can support the work of the Foundation in various ways, for example by fundraising to support its many, vital initiatives in training and educating caregivers or by volunteering your time to assist with its various initiatives.
GWAF has continued to fill the gap in dementia and Alzheimer’s disease awareness, services and advocacy in Nigeria. For further information visit:
