‘Mosques can serve as alternative to old age homes’

Mental health experts suggested for mosques to also serve as community centres for elderly people with mental and physical illnesses enabling them to spend their spare time under supervision of volunteers, at a consultative meeting on Sunday.

The event was organised by the Pakistan Society of Neurology (PSN), Neurology Awareness and Research Foundation (NARF) in collaboration with Lundbeck with respect to the World Alzheimer’s Day – observed on September 21st annually. The neurologists believed that mosques could be an excellent alternative to old homes where the elderly could be taken care of instead of being left alone to die at their abodes.

“With a downfall of the traditional joint family system in Pakistan, elderly people fighting mental problems such as dementia and Alzheimer’s have been left alone to face the consequences of growing age,” renowned physician Dr Ejaz Vohra observed.

The country’s sizeable elderly population could easily be taken care of at our mosques instead of old homes, he further claimed.

Eminent health expert and psychiatrist Prof Iqbal Afridi in a detailed presentation on ‘Psychiatric issues in Alzheimer’s disease’ stated that the quality of life of the elderly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s could considerably be improved with controlling and treating depression and other psychiatric illnesses.

Since the diseases trigger behavioural issues owing to memory loss and depression, coping with day to day problems could be made easy for the patients as well as their families with the help of modern drugs and environmental changes.

Giving due consideration to the irritability that develops in patients, Dr Afridi called for children of such patients to be properly trained in order to properly take care of their parents.

“People spend thousands on remembering their loved ones but instead of that, they should spend money and time on them while they are still alive,” he stated.

Dr Fauzia Siddiqui, renowned neurologist, observed that a healthy environment could result in better health for people going through depression and other psychiatric issues.

“Such patients should be kept in places where they are closer to nature; watching the sun rise, breathing fresh air, changing weathers and other natural phenomenon massively helps in coping with mental illnesses.”

PSN secretary Dr Abdul Malik appreciated neurologists and psychiatrists for attending the consultative meeting. He observed there were around a million people suffering from these diseases in Pakistan but a serious lack of awareness among both doctors and common people had increased the suffering.

Several other senior health experts including eminent diabetologist Prof Dr Zaman Shaikh, Prof Dr Arif Herekar, Brig (retd) Dr Shoaib Ahmed, Dr Amanat A Mohsin and Dr Abdul Malik also attended the meeting.