Mijas raises Alzheimer’s awareness

MIJAS Council has announced it is working to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s among local businesses.

The council said it will be working with Mijas businesses to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s.
Officials said the council is getting together with local Alzheimer’s associations to take part in a drive by the Spanish Alzheimer’s Confederation (CEAFA) to spread awareness.
Councillors Natalia Martinez and Hipolito Zapico joined representatives of local associations in going to businesses to speak about the initiative.
Councillor Martinez said: “There are many things that can sound the alarm to these merchants, such as when they begin to notice that they forget what to buy, repeat the same product twice or when paying they do not know the change, these are symptoms of confusion that serve to detect these cases.”
She said if a business owner notices this they should look “for a relative of that person, normally they usually carry the identification of the relative they can go to.”  She said to call the emergency services if a relative cannot be found.
The council has been giving information to businesses on what situations may arise and how to act before them.
Councillor Zapico said: “What we ask not only of the merchants, but also of the rest of the users of the shops, is that they have empathy with these people and that they be able to ask them if they can help them, as simple as that. Between all of us we have to be more aware of these people, who are mostly older.”
For her part, the director of local Alzheimer’s association, AFA Fuengirola-Mijas, Paqui Lebron, said that disease was becoming more common.
Maria Carmen Lopez is director of the day cenre of the Association of Relatives of Alzheimer’s Patients in Mijas Pueblo where “in addition to attending to these people with a day service until 5 in the afternoon and workshops, we do outreach work and raise awareness of these diseases so that these people receive the appropriate treatment.”
The council said the drive to raise awareness around Alzheimer’s will be carried out across Mijas on the Costa del Sol.

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