free zone gun free zone do a maniac because they're all cowards the gun free zone is let's go in and let's attack because bullets aren't coming back at us now the head of the un has called for an immediate halt to a time zone series eastern ghouta saying civilians there are living in hell on earth syrian and russian air raids have killed more than three hundred people since sunday also dozens of schoolgirls are feared missing following it back around the time called the school in northeastern nigeria there are conflicting reports of some girls have been found and rescued after escaping the assault in the state in twenty fourteen boko haram abducted more than two hundred seventy girls in the town of chibok israeli media say a former confidant of the prime minister benjamin netanyahu may testify against him in a corruption case shlomo filbert is a former director of the communications ministry and he was arrested on sunday by

police looking into government benefits that were offered to a telecoms giant the stream is next on al-jazeera back in thirty minutes. facing the realities of growing up when did you realize that you were living in a special place a so-called secret city getting to the heart of the matter why is activist in jail just because she expressed herself hear their story on talk to al-jazeera at this time. and here in the stream now live on you tube today living with dementia. impacts the efforts to tackle it and the pining developments helping those affected. dementia can be devastating for those living with it as well as their family and

friends. a daily battle to unlock memories get around and complete routine tasks that affects millions around the globe the numbers are expected to drastically increase how experts predict them to rise particularly quickly in china india south asia and the western pacific region while the effects are some forms of dementia can be alleviated through drug treatment a cure remains elusive joining us to talk about this from maryland very wet no ski dementia rights advocate who was also diagnosed with dementia twelve years ago in georgia jackson a clinical manager with the dementia tour and that's a program that stimulates dementia and used as a resource to train people in patient care in the u.k. michael bloomberg is a professor of applied dementia research at no it's medical school he also helped design a mobile game called c. hero quest it gathers data related to the illness and in switzerland to do she's

a medical officer with the world health organization working in the field of neurological disorders hello everybody it's good to have you here mary when did you realize something was going wrong with your health so you were diagnosed with dementia twelve years ago what were the signs how did you even know. well actually the first signs or are rather nebulous so there were funny things going on i was remembering things differently from other people i didn't forget things i just remembered different events or different things that happened differently so that was kind of strange but it was when i was teaching at the university that i especially noticed it when i told the students that they needed to turn something in one day and. they said no no you didn't even give that assignment so when i started realizing that twenty students in the classroom

knew something that i get hill so what point do you feel comfortable about telling people that you have to tell them straight away to go white a little bit what do you say. that's a good question originally twelve years ago i was diagnosed with dementia i was actually diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and then i was undiagnosed and then i was diagnosed with something else that was wrong and then i was actually correctly diagnosed years ago. so it's only been in the last five years that i've even been telling people and the answer is i didn't tell them right away for the most part. of the stigma and the responses that i got or pretty much airy people. stay away or just kind of felt their hand really sad look on their face so i don't usually tell people right away unless i'm advocating

a specific set of actual personal sounds like they're wrenching. i'm am sure a lot of people in our online community can relate to what you're saying and that stigma that so many people face the same here says she's dealing with a member of her family who is suffering from dementia and alzheimer's to be specific to seems has my family refused to consult the doctor for a long time even though the early symptoms of immediate memory loss began showing because of this common belief that dementia is a natural stage of aging and there's really nothing that medicines can do so michael take us through this is two things one knowing in the knowledge that alzheimer's is not necessarily equal to dementia and two is that a natural part of aging is everyone going to go through it. yes i think it's a great point that you know us in the cities is only one type of dimension dimensions an amber alert of course many different diseases and i'll tell mrs is

the most common form of dementia and people with on some of these usually have small memory problems and for a long time it was really felt that people who when they age they would old develop dementia for example it would be but just part of norman aging but now we know of course that it's a disease which actually develops only in some people and. proteins in the brain stopped clumping together become toxic to the no shows and in the stock dying going to show you a cough that is the. national. and it's showing. how many people around the world suffer from outside. and in america have over nine million ten million in europe for africa twenty two. to room this is a widespread this isn't and that's just outside us it's not any other complications

from dementia do we understand it well enough right now. in terms of what the global population. i think that's a very important point that you raise the number of people affected by dementia and actually if you look at the map in twenty seven the numbers have climbed up from forty five million to fifty million so there are every want cases up to mention and if you think about it is actually one case every three seconds say five count as one thousand one thousand to one thousand three there is a new piece to me and what it means it means that if we think about these numbers which are fifty million today by twenty fifty this is going to triple so we have talking about a burden of one fifty million people living victim aincha. now one misconception that we have is that dementia is

a problem in high income countries which is not true it's a problem all over the world in the draft should that it's not them in africa it's a problem in the it's a problem in low and middle income countries so does meaning that it requires an economic response and the time line to remember is that it's a growing burden it's a global problem is they konami backed so if you look at the billions of dollars lost to dementia it's more than eight hundred billion and by twenty thirty it's going to be more don't do a trillion dollars so really it requires a coordinated response and that has to happen today by all of us. will one of the main things that need to. teach people how to tell the people with dementia if this is happening in your family you're watching this program and you're thinking i think that might be a member of my family what would you advise people to do what should they be doing well the first thing is to get some good information. and the you can do of course

web searches you're going to get a whole plethora of information i would say if somebody suspects that there's a problem see your health care provider. because there is there are many things that can mimic dementia there are things that we can resolve but either way. the sooner that i mean she was addressed the more we can do for that individual south i would say the first the first step is definitely you have to see that health care provider get evaluated find out what's going on and then if there is dementia and she then look to your local resource agencies and see what it is that they have that they can provide if you can't buy anything luckily there's agencies that national level in most countries that can provide an place to start getting information about the disease process so that it complicate that to fill it out

here because we got so many stories from people who are caring for their loved ones with ten men chad this is one from a botched attempt at the video coming out of pennsylvania and here's her specific story my mother is a dominican immigrant and she has alzheimer's disease and it's it's really difficult for anyone across all color lines who have this disease recently my mother had to be placed in nursing home and that was one of the most difficult things i've ever done in my life and support it's just not there the information it's not there it's not culturally sensitive it's not taking into account my mother's background in her experiences it's such a one size fits all but the one size size for like people. similar i could theory nodding there as she was talking about this being a one size fits all solution that of course then doesn't fit everyone right right

one of the things that we do second wind dreams is number one we're trying to change the perception of aging and what it's like for people with dementia but one of the things that we have our trainers all across the country and in some other countries that are working in an environment such as. nursing homes and assisted living home help hospice all kinds of things and working to help change those. when i'm under some of the thing i'm more culturally sensitive they are more sensitive to what it's like for folks who have to mention and so we're trying we're not you know we can't be everywhere but we are trying so i think if that's that's a concern in your meat isn't getting met please feel free to you're welcome to get in touch with us and we can't help solve some of those those issues with rip you

know one of the things that you and your team actually does is you create a dimensional virtual tool so that they give us potential pack of us can work out what is it like to have to mention so this empathy that one of our reporters from al to say his name is tom ackerman he took this demential factual tool he's a little clip of his report having the children follow simple instructions but the eyeglasses blubs headphones and shoe inserts that women have to wear make the tasks they're given almost as disorienting is for a person disabled by the disease but what's happening difficult and even startling as i myself discovered by taking the virtual dimentia to resident fire engine where do i go. i was surprised at how. how easy and just anxious i fell. because i know it's pretend i know it's not real but yet just being in there i still felt that anxiety maybe you must understand this lack

of empathy the way that people who have to treat eight can you spell it out for us because i can be candid. i can't say that all people are lacking in empathy because a lot of people have gone through similar types of situations and you've never been immobilised full for a certain reason or if you lost your hearing or lost one of your other senses so there are similarities that some people have gone through but the problem with. dementia is that it's an invisible disability. and according to the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities from the united nations. we have certain rights certain human rights and these still must be met the problem is when we try to have them that are when we ask that they be there they are number. government

agencies or other types of service providers that sometimes don't believe that we even have our condition. for example if i can still be articulate they say oh well you're fine or if i can pass certain exams they say oh you're still doing a found out and that should good enough so i find that there is an almost prejudice against certain people and it's not necessarily an emotional lack of though i'm sure that happens also. here's one story that i want to share this is from test me one twitter she says my mom is taking care of my gran who has an alzheimer's patient and it's been depressing to see how it's draining my mom physically and emotionally the thing that it is it's one long sad story with no gratifying moments she goes on to say my grandmother doesn't do well with anyone else so my mom unfortunately can't take a break from looking after her i think what my mom and other caretakers need is

more emotional support from the community but it's so michael i know that you told our producers ahead of the show and testament is writing us from india that you often work with people around the world who have some misconceptions about what dementia is how do you address that challenge. yes it's very difficult and especially in countries where maybe it's not yet accepted to be. a disease but seen as no one part of normal aging it can be very challenging fulda families tics kept it that it is really a disease happening so we work with people not only because most research i guess and most talk nice texas always in west and you know western europe and north america being very strong always but really developing countries has been very often overlooked so we work for example with people in india or brazil where we're looking at for example patients who have very low education what you can illiterates how do they get to tonic no solid they are taking care of which can be

really really challenging and looking at those symptoms we see there are a lot of similarities of course between people but there's also these country specific social and cultural issues which you need to take into account what we heard already before this kind of how do you take that person background into account how educated their which culture to coming from what kind of family values to have can be really really challenging in a way then to support them the best way you can or even even diagnose them to a what were you going to say the ground yeah so i was going to add on you know i think. the thing that michael mentioned above the community up to these at meijer. specially in developing countries that makes that surround and very often you would see the human rights that dementia might be died or. they may not be able to go out so the issues of social isolation be they come in so and in addition what

also happens is that many of these low and middle income countries in developing what we do not have are just gone so for example if you look at the number of countries which have a dementia policy or it is strategy most of them these are in high got good days so if there are thirty odd. interests to do with that national dementia policy twenty seven twenty eight are the high income countries in their only couple of countries from the developing world that have thought about it that response so really what we need is one changing the acted towards of the people sort raising the awareness and understanding about dementia at a community level and then strengthening our systems i think what we heard earlier that we don't have services that are delivered to the needs of the people and i think that's extremely important and it took choirs investment from countries from the governments and we required that response across all of the three levels if we

want to see that every people with dementia at their care givers their families receive the care and support that it's quiet right now this is very interesting pioneering research going on and some very interesting policies let me say a place called say in the netherlands it is a village everybody in this french apart from the keris has dimentia have a look started with our vision and normal life for people so if you dimension. people have to say norms show us day rhythm so we have less behavior problems. more important direction feels more at home they're free so they can do anything getting one but where there's safety. well you're thinking you cannot prevent everything but you can work on quality of life and.

if it's the feeling that people will respond i really find it a special place it's a different place i think it's possible to have a normal life we've succeeded much. so we got this comment from terry fisher who is a dementia advocate on twitter and he knows very well about that village and he writes for those with dementia who are living there it offers freedom of choice it emulates life as an everyday situation people are treated with ask people and they're treated with dignity it does not have a care home field and it has a wonderfully structured open way of life but we've got these comments as well about the village this is dimension they carry on their own blog dealing with people who have to care for people suffering from dementia they write i've heard about it but financially viable in our third world country i'm afraid another

person also writes in something similar groups as i've heard a little about it but are they financially feasible for every family so melor out the finances is something that a lot of people are picking up on and they know that there are options out there but they wonder if they will be able to suit families who may not have those means and there are so you know. a lot that we can do i think. regardless i mean this is so you know a place like that is wonderful there are some places where the night shift where jamas rather than traditional clothes so that helps the people realize that it's night time and it makes it much more calm or there's all kinds of different innovative things here and there we need to come up with. what he has a world concert to be wrong. are focused on the person's inner care and i think the individual person whether it's they've got means or not can work towards providing

persons in her care by one getting a little bit of awareness and understanding and empathy but also. focusing on the choices and and focusing on what that individual with dementia is still able to do and celebrating that rather than focusing on on all of their deficits of course you have to make accommodations for things but i think that's something that any career through here situation whether it's. the equivalent of nursing home or assisted living or concert and somebody is home or a small group homes living situation they may not have all those fancy bells and whistles but they certainly can. look at making offering some pro-choice isn't and learning some basic ways to approach people to make it more comfortable and easier more user friendly for that person dementia i couldn't even your partner came up with something a little bit fancy and that was again a again me how does that fit into treatment of cats could see here and the pay the

cake which explained how it was before we saw it yes so basically we developed a game which is pretty much it. that people don't know that you can potentially prevent a lot just to mention it as long as you. enough identify people and that's really a challenge at the moment where we're mostly looking at memory where people have memory to finish it and what we've thinking is that people have very very. changes long before to have memory problems or to measure them it's quite difficult. so we developed a game which measures navigation in healthy people and to patients as well to see how to navigate to potentially then it has to be diagnosed much and then hopefully treat them all so much michael s. to see a little bit of that see here a quest have a look. now

he's having all the string today it's an education and move to shaw how would you explain to our heroes how navigate your life how do you walk around the to munch on . because it's a slowly progressive condition and because people are fundamentally

resilient and very normally are able to adapt to new situations. i've been compensating some consciously for many many years when you forget something regularly you start to write it down when you. pick up the wrong thing from time to time you make sure that the right thing is in the right place or but when in general you. have to think about the way you think and and it's something that anybody who has ever had to teach naturally does because before you can teach something to someone else you have to think about how someone learns it so basically i think that's what i've been doing i've been thinking about the way that i thought how i used to do things . because it was so natural i even occurred to me it was almost automatic so now i have to think about it how i go about things and set things up so that it is

possible for me to still accomplish what i want to accomplish because i have goals and i still intend to accomplish those goals as long as i can and many of those goals are much different from the ones i used to have. but i'm still able to do it because i'm still able to understand a lot of processes this is not possible for people with. much more advanced dementia but they can still learn and that's a big thing to really understand is that just because certain parts of our brain have been damaged other parts are still functioning we can really learn so that's what i'd like to. think up if question to be a youtube ishant says how can i spread awareness about dementia and my region there's an answer from to hunger be open to behavioral changes be patient and be simple so thank you very much too i guess you got mary emma laura and michael it's

been an education having you on the program we really appreciate your knowledge and your thoughts and experiences a conversation continues always online minicon i was seeking i get a taste of excellence in. of course.

we have a news gathering team here that is second to none and they're all over the world and they do a fantastic job when information is coming in very quickly all at once we've got to be able to react to all of the changes and al-jazeera we adapt to them. my job is is to break it all down and we held the view on the stand and make sense of it. what makes this moment this era we're living through so unique this is really an attack on itself is a lot of misunderstanding a distortion even of what free speech is supposed to be about the context it's hugely important level right to publish if you have a duty to be offensive or provoke if there would otherwise people do setting the stage for a serious debate up front at this time on al-jazeera. discover

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