Today Newspaper St. Maarten

One-day conference about making disease public health priority – Alzheimer International chair Kuriakose here on Monday

St. Maarten – The Chairman of Alzheimer Disease International (ADI) will visit Sint Maarten starting this upcoming Monday for three days. Dr. Jacob Roy Kuriakose, founder and past-president of the Alzheimer and Related Disorders Society from India, assumed his new responsibility as elected chairman of ADI, in March at the congress where the Sint Maarten Alzheimer Foundation was admitted as its 77th member.
The ADI-chairman is on a mission to advocate for dementia to become a public health priority. In April of this year, together with the World Health Organization (WHO), ADI has launched the report “Dementia: a public health priority.” The Sint Maarten Alzheimer Foundation presented a copy of this report to Public Health Minister Cornelius de Weever.
Considering the inspiring role Sint Maarten government officials have played in the regional HIV-AIDS program in the last decade, Dr Jacob Roy Kuriakose wants to discuss with local authorities what commitment the government can make to support the advocacy for dementia to become a public health priority in all countries of the Paho-region and in the Caribbean in particular.
To achieve the goal, the improvement of the care for people with dementia and their family members, ADI wants to develop worldwide strategic alliances with community service organizations of professional and business persons, such as Rotary, Lions, business associations such as the Indian Merchant Association. The ADI-chairman is scheduled to meet with the District Governors of the Rotary and the Lions service clubs.
Dr Jacob Roy Kuriakose has noticed the cooperation from the local Rotary and Lions clubs with the local Alzheimer Foundation in the awareness campaign. With the district governors of these service organizations the ADI-chairman wants to discuss how they can assist ADI in making dementia a public health priority.
With the Paho-Sanitary Conference in Washington in September this year forthcoming and the WHO Assembly in Geneva in May next year the ADI-chairman wants to discuss the support of private sector social alliances of the Sint Maarten Alzheimer organization in its advocacy strategy. The partnerships with the regional service organizations will be beneficial also to the ADI-globalization and ADI-regionalization policy for this region.
To give hope to people with dementia and their family and professional caregivers the ADI-chairman will be the key-note speaker at a one-day dementia conference this upcoming Monday at the Sonesta Great Bay Resort and Casino.
Topics that will be covered during the conference are why dementia must be recognized as a public health priority; how ADI wants to achieve this and with which policies and strategies; what was done in Sint Maarten to make dementia a public health priority; how it can become public health priority in the whole region; what is being done in Sint Maarten for people with dementia and their family; and what Sint Maarten can offer ADI and the region to help people with dementia.
Stakeholders of public health, wellness and wellbeing as also community service organizations have been invited to attend the conference. Government and corporate sponsors have given their contribution to help realize this conference for the region.
The conference will take place at the Sonesta Great Bay Resort and Casino. It begins Monday morning at 8.30 a.m. and closes at 5.30 p.m. For information visit the Sint Maarten Alzheimer Foundation’s Facebook page, call the hotline at 92 20, phone 522 09 25, or sending an email to: alzheimersxm@gmail.com.