Jotheeswaran A. T .

Dementia: an Emerging Public Health Challenge for India Jotheeswaran A. T .

The evolution of understanding care of the aged in India.............. The increasing life expectancy,fall in fertility and reduced mortality is leading to an increase in the number of aged people all over the world. As of 2008, 62 per cent (313 million) of the aged in the world live in developing countries; 7.5 per cent (75million) aged people live in India. Due to the traditional system of three generations living together, most of the 75 per cent of the aged people live with their children; similarly most of the dementia patients are also taken care by children or relatives. The cultural commitments, social expectations and the traditional value systems enable families to provide care for patients with dementia, without reporting high levels of burden. This book is going to be an important addition to the understanding of the challenges of aged care in general and dementia care in particular, in a developing nation like India. As Mr. Jotheshwaran has field experience of meeting over 1000 elderly in their residences, he has brought out the ground realities of the aged in this book. Ravi Samuel MA MPhil, Consultant Psychotherapist , India.