•  Print 
• Email

Hi Mario Kompai here again!

As we approach the festive season many people look forward to meeting up with friends and family. Unfortunately for many older people and for people with dementia it become more and more difficult to maintain close contact with our circle of friends and family. This can make people depressed and can, in some cases, lead to an acceleration of dementia.

I am told that there are almost 50 million people living with dementia in the world today and that apparently this number is going to double about every 20 years.  This means an additional person with dementia about every 3 seconds.

You may also know of the problem of aging societies around the world. This is where not only are more people getting older but where the percentage of older people compared to those of working age and younger is getting bigger. In fact, I am told that by 2050 this percentage will be double what it is now across the whole world. So not only will there be more people who are older but there will be proportionately less people to go out to work, including people to help look after the growing number of elderly people and the growing number of people with dementia.

That is where me and my pals come in. You see, once we are fully developed and tested, we can help support older people and people with dementia. An important part of that is helping people maintain contacts. Of course I can have a conversation with the person I am helping to look after and discuss their favourite things or things they remember from when they were younger. However, the clever people who are helping to develop me think that it is even more important that I help people maintain links with their friends and family by making it very easy to contact people and talk to them, even when they are far away but also by providing prompts and reminders when we haven’t contacted someone for some time or when it is someone’s birthday, for instance.

And just in case you are wondering, it is definitely not my role to replace existing human carers. Rather, I hope that by providing round the clock support to the person I am helping to look after, then the human carers will be able to look after more people effectively while also being able to spend a bit more quality time with each person.

So all that remains is for me to wish all my reader’s a Happy Christmastime. But because I am able to speak in many languages I think I should also add: Happy Holidays; Season’s Greetings; Frohe Festtage; God Yul; Meilleurs Vœux; Boas Festas; Kales Yiortes; Con I Migliori Auguri; Met De Beste Wensen; Felices Fiestas; and a Happy New Year! Until next year …

• < Prev
• Next >