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Copenhagen launches campaign to raise awareness of the early signs of dementia

Ben Hamilton
September 18th, 2018


This article is more than 6 years old.

Municipality compiles handy list of ten signs your loved ones might have it

Sufferers can often lose track of their everyday lives (photo: Pixabay)

Copenhagen Municipality is running a campaign this week to raise awareness about dementia, with a special focus on recognising the early signs that a loved one might have it.

Some 300 new diagnoses are recorded in the municipality every year, and it is estimated that the number of cases will rise from 5,500 today to 6,500 by 2030, according to Nationalt Videnscenter for Demens.

The municipality is accordingly earmarking an extra 5.6 million kroner as part of its 2019 budget to convert nine care homes into ones specialising in looking after dementia patients.

Up to 60 percent of all the residents in nursing homes in Copenhagen suffer from dementia.

Focus on early diagnosis
An early diagnosis is important, says the NVD, because it enables early treatment through physical exercise and cognitive stimulation therapy, allowing sufferers to live a much longer normal life with the condition than they would have been able to without early help.

“Dementia is a terrible disease, and therefore we must talk about it,” said Sisse Marie Welling, the deputy mayor for health and care.

“The sooner you get a diagnosis, the better we can help you. Therefore, in our campaign we are encouraging Copenhageners to pay more attention to the signs of dementia.”

The Demensugen 2018 campaign will end on Saturday with an event at the new Center for Demens (Juliane Maries Vej 30, Cph N) from 10:00-14:00.

It has put together a list of the ten most obvious signs that somebody might have dementia (see below).


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”