Dementia Care Asia News and Updates

The Institute for Dementia Care launched its 2017 seminar series at the UERM Auditorium on April 7, 2017. Guest Lecturer from Denmark Prof. Kieu Phung discussed demographic trends in aging emphasizing the statistics that indicate more than half of all the people with dementia in the world live in Asia. More than that the World Health Organization declared dementia as a public health priority. There is indeed a real need to educate healthcare providers to care for people with dementia. This recent Dementia Care Specialist Seminar is a general introduction to dementia and the nuances of dementia care (see program). The seminar was attended by family members and healthcare related professionals from as far as Bicol.

Due to the super aged population of Japan, there has been recent news of the very high need for elderly caregivers in that country. Since Filipino caregivers are known to be caring and flexible, they are best fit as carers for elderly. So the Institute for Dementia Care invited a well-positioned speaker to discuss the Philippine-Japan partnership on dementia care. At the end of the seminar, Mr. Clark Dexter S. Badaran from the Philippine Human Resource Global Information Center provided updates on the status of the Philippine-Japan partnership on dementia care as well as the processes involved and expectations in terms of employment opportunities in Japan.

As expected, this part of the seminar generated much interest and raised lots of questions from the participants. Mr. Badaran emphasized the need to learn Japanese language the proper way to be able to communicate effectively with patients. He likewise stressed that what Japan needs are dementia caregivers, and therefore the chances of being employed is high if the applicant has a course certificate in dementia care. The course that the Institute for Dementia Care will offer which will start on May 27 to every Saturday and Sunday for 10 weekends is the  Aged and Dementia Care Course and is partly based on Japanese books on dementia care.