The first Boarding School for patients with end-stage dementia was inaugurated (photo & video)
It was inaugurated on Thursday afternoon first Boarding School for patients with end-stage Dementiaat Thessaloniki.
The boarding school is located on a plot of land 2,000 sq.m., in a two-storey building on 65 Nikolaou Plastira Street, in Eastern Thessaloniki and can accommodate 25 patients.
Has total 16 rooms of which 9 are double rooms and 7 double rooms which meet all the required requirements for the accommodation of patients9 with end-stage dementia.
“This Boarding School is the culmination of a 30-year effort”said the scientific manager of the Boarding School, Professor A.P., Neuropsychiatrist, President of the Panhellenic Alzheimer’s Disease Federation Magda Tsolaki adding that it is the first time that such a Boarding School operates in Greece.
The Boarding School started its operation September 1st, when the first patient was admitted while at the moment three patients are accommodated in it.
However, according to the scientific manager of the Boarding School, a graphical problem prevents the admission of patients.
“We have a difficulty getting new patients. A directive that all patients should have legal aid. We now have a list of 40 patients and all of them entered the legal aid process. The people coming in here are poor and can’t afford a lawyer to get legal aid.”Ms. Tsolaki noted in her statements and added that she has contacted the Ministry of Health in order to overcome this obstacle.
As he pointed out, the provision of services to patients is free. The running costs of the Boarding School will be covered by the NSRF until December of 2023 and then by the Ministry of Health.
The Deputy Minister of Macedonia – Thrace was also present at the opening ceremony, Stavros Kalafatis, who called today “important» while congratulating Mrs. Tsolaki for the operation of the Boarding School since as she pointed out “in this way, Thessaloniki emerges as a protagonist in dealing with such a difficult disease».
In her video message that was shown at the opening, the Deputy Minister of Health, responsible for mental health issues, Zoe Rapti, said that today in Greece 160,000 people suffer from Alzheimer’s and but 200,000 with mild mental illness.
He even emphasized that these patients are more than 1 million citizens if the families of the patients and the people who take care of them are included.
As Ms. Rapti said, the goal is to create new centers for the diseases of these diseases but also to create mobile units that will visit the patients.
The people hosted at the Boarding School in Thessaloniki will present some of the following symptoms:
-Inability to communicate verbally,
– Need help with feeding and maintaining personal hygiene,
-Frequent falls
-Lack of balance-
– Confinement to a wheelchair/bed,
– Urinary incontinence
– Confusion
-Insomnias, etc.
The staff of the boarding school consists of doctors, nursing staff, a psychologist, a social worker and a physical therapist.