Galway Advertiser 2004/2004_01_01/GA_0101_E1_014.pdf 

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14 N E W S

Galway Advertiser

January 1 2004

Demand for Athenry centre Alzheimer services rockets
BY MARY O'CONNOR Demand for services at a centre for Alzheimer disease sufferers in Athenry have rocketed in the past year. There are now more than 80 people on a waiting list for Maryfield Home, a 22-bed long stay, day care and respite facility which was set up by the West of Ireland Alzheimer Foundation. The centre catered for about 180 people this year. John Grant, the organisation's CEO says the number of people seeking help from the foundation's in-home support service has also mushroomed. "There appears to be an increased number of people in their middle 50s looking for support," he says. "It is very sad when you see a couple about 30 years married with one of them suffering from Alzheimer's disease. The carer faces giving up work to look after an otherwise healthy partner." The foundation - which was set up in 1994 and provides an in-home support service in Galway, Mayo and Roscommon as well as a respite home in Ballindine, Co Mayo and the facility in Athenry plans to build another home in the west in 2004. He describes Alzheimer's disease as the carers' disease. "It puts families under tremendous stress. It is important they get planned breaks to enable them to live their lives. Carers in the past have had the rigours and stress of caring 52 weeks a year for relatives with Alzheimer's disease." Grant says families can find it very difficult when they begin to lose someone to the condition. "When you love your partner for so long or your mam, dad or other relative you can find it hard to accept that they are slowly slipping into a world of their own. You are losing the one you love." Sharing the pain and loss associated with Alzheimer's disease is important, Grant believes. "Many people caring for those with the disease find they are facing a long, lonely dark road." However, he stresses there is light at the end of the tunnel. "This is where

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Pictured at a National Council for Ageing and Older People conference recently were Colette Balfe, West of Ireland Alzheimer Foundation; John Grant, CEO, West of Ireland Alzheimer Foundation; Minister for Health and Older People Ivor Callely; and Mary McDermott, services for older people, Western Health Board.

Acknowledgement & In Memoriam Cards

we come in. We can walk beside carers and help them through the difficult times." Alzheimer's disease is the fourth largest killer in

this country after heart disease and stroke. Some 4,000 people in the west have the condition, 1,200 of whom live in Galway. The West of Ireland

Alzheimer Foundation's office is located at Colonial Buildings, Eglinton Street, Galway. Tel (091) 565193.

Now available at the following The Imperial Hotel Eyre Square, Co Galway Wednesday 7th January 2004, 10am - 3pm The above are regular monthly clinics - if you cannot call to a centre this month please Freephone 1800 441 155 for details of next month's date. Free Hearing Test Appointments Necessary/Essential A full range of batteries available for all makes of hearing aids. DSW Grant may be available to you. The country wide campaign for better hearing supported by Amplivox, 14 Lower O'Connell Street, Dublin 1 Freephone 1800 441 155 Call into the Amplivox + Ultratone Hearing Centres above with this advertisement for FREE hearing test and demonstration plus 75 discount if you wish to purchase (one voucher per person)

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