A significant donation has helped fund a new program to help with the treatment and care of dementia patients.
Philanthropist pledges $177 million to fight dementia on a global level. The donation will go towards helping found the Global Brain Health Institute, whose main purpose will be to fight dementia all around the world by educating a new generation of leaders worldwide on how to improve the mental health care that is being provided for dementia patients and on better measures that can be taken in order to prevent more people from developing the disease.
The donation was made by The Atlantic Philanthropies, a charitable organization founded by billionaire and philanthropist Charles “Chuck” Feeney and will go to the Trinity College Dublin and the University of California at San Francisco, who will start working on the new Global Brain Health Institute.
The two universities will collaborate on the new project focusing on the process of aging with an emphasis on the onset of dementia and preventive measures that can be taken in order to stop the recent rise of the disease. The universities have received the long-term research grant from Feeney’s charitable organization and have made a joint announcement to explain what the focus of their research will be.
According to the CEO of The Atlantic Philanthropies the grant’s main purpose is to create a new generation of medical leaders to carry on the fight against the disease and to equip these leaders with the knowledge and skills that they require in order to significantly change the way that dementia care is practiced at the moment.
The research will focus not only on better treatment courses for people affected with the disease, but also on factors which can facilitate the onset of dementia, including societal factors that generally influence mental health. The efforts are aimed at reducing the number of dementia diagnoses among older people, which have been on the rise in recent years.
There is still no drug regimen that can treat dementia and people afflicted by the disease are more often than not socioeconomically disadvantaged. Dementia care is also lacking in many countries, as there may not be enough trained experts to care for the growing number of patients.
This is why the new program aims to train fellows from all around the world in several specialties that can help them better diagnose and care for dementia patients. The fellows will receive training in neuroscience, geriatrics, health economics and public policies. They will also acquire first-hand experience in the diagnosing, treating and caring for patients that suffer from the disease.
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