Anseong City Dementia Care Center, operating 'Dementia Care in Our Neighborhood' with resident health leaders

Anseong City Dementia Care Center announced that starting on the 26th, it will operate “Dementia Care in Our Neighborhood” in cooperation with resident health leaders to strengthen dementia care in the community.

The “Dementia Care in Our Neighborhood” program is being promoted to help dementia patients continue to live in the community through joint cooperation of local resources and to encourage interest in dementia through regular field visits. The program also aims to strengthen the early response to dementia management by conducting dementia screening for high-risk groups and forming a network between dementia care centers and resident health leaders.

[Korean Today] Strengthening Early Response to Dementia Management through Regional Resource Cooperation © Reporter Lee Myeong-ae

The resident health leaders are volunteers who have completed a certain training course by discovering residents who are interested in the health of the village as part of the customized community care. Currently, 78 resident health leaders are providing health care services such as companionship, medication check, and hospital accompaniment to 746 care recipients, and in April, they received dementia partner training to improve dementia awareness.

In order to strengthen the role of resident health leaders, the Dementia Care Center will conduct a tour of towns and counties to encourage leaders to add the Dementia Care Center KakaoTalk channel and regularly provide dementia-related news and information. In addition, it plans to provide customized on-site services based on dementia screening needs, dementia patients, and mild cognitive impairment diagnoses.

An official from the Dementia Care Center said, “We plan to actively support the creation of a neighborhood where people can live healthily without worrying about dementia by continuously eliminating blind spots in dementia through joint cooperation with local resources and acting as a strong companion based on an understanding of dementia.”