In Lombardy 190 thousand dementia patients

“This historical memory that preserves memories of the past, helps us understand the present and reach out confidently towards the future … Alas, this wonderful tool, rich in content and memories, was beginning to “forget” inside me”. This is the testimony of Maria, 75 years old, among the guests of the Memory School of the Irrcs Fatebenefratelli of Brescia, who, on the occasion of World Alzheimer’s Day on September 21, relaunched the importance of focusing on telerehabilitation. “The rehabilitation goal in neurodegenerative diseases – explains Giuliano Binetti, head of the outpatient macro activity unit (Mac) and the Memory Center – cannot be the persistent improvement of the cognitive deficit treated because even in the case of demonstration of specific training effects, the progression of the deficit will tend to nullify them in the natural course of the disease. Realistic goals are therefore the maintenance of residual abilities and the reduction of disability, through multidisciplinary intervention programs that include neuropsychological rehabilitation in association with other types of treatment. Cognitive telerehabilitation can fit optimally into this context, allowing high-intensity interventions and frequent outcome monitoring”. In Lombardy, there are 190 thousand people diagnosed with dementia, of which 115 thousand with Alzheimer’s and 160 thousand with mild cognitive deterioration, under and over 65, with approximately 600,000 family caregivers. As Orazio Zanetti, a geriatrician, recalled, “80% of patients are assisted by their family.”