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There is need to create more awareness on the medical condition

With the theme, “The Earlier You Know, the More You Can Do: A Dementia Diagnosis Matters”, the World Alzheimer’s Day 2026 is observed today not only to draw attention to the neurodegenerative disease but also to reduce social stigma and improve access to treatment for those who suffer the ailment. We urge health authorities in Nigeria to pay closer attention to the growing burden of a disease that affects many of our people with older citizens in the high-risk category.

To create awareness on what he described as a ‘quiet crisis in a young country’, Principal Officer, Family Ark Mission, Dr David Oludare Mark, prepared a paper for ������Ƶ, ‘From awareness to action: building dementia-friendly communities.’ It is on how a society treats its most vulnerable persons. “Nowhere is that test harder than with dementia”, which is not a normal part of ageing,” said Mark. “Everyone forgets. We now rely on phones to remember numbers, routes and appointments, and forgetting a password or a name does not mean dementia. Forgetting where you put your keys is ordinary. Forgetting what keys are for is not.” Mark stated, “Missing a name and remembering it later is ordinary. Asking the same question again and again within minutes, getting lost on a familiar road, or being unable to manage money or cook a meal you have cooked for decades is different.”

Dementia, according to medical experts, is a major decline in one or more cognitive abilities such as memory, attention, language, reasoning or judgement, serious enough to interfere with daily life. In Nigeria, Mark further explains, too often a person is described only through symptoms: “the one who forgets”, “the one who wanders” but this doesn’t help because these are individuals with each having a life story and preferences that deserve respect. Where a person disappears behind their symptoms, it can result in weak legal protection, which leaves elders exposed to exploitation and neglect just when they are least able to protect themselves.

When memory fails, judgment, communication and the ability to say “I am being mistreated” also weaken, according to Mark. “A person with dementia may not be able to report hunger, pain, theft or abuse, and may not be believed when they do. Cognitive impairment exposes people to neglect, financial abuse, exploitation, wandering and getting lost, and to the quiet loss of decision-making rights over their property, their money and their own lives,” said Mark. “This is why dementia sits at the centre of the safeguarding conversation. When a person with dementia can no longer speak fully for themselves, the systems around them must become stronger advocates for their dignity and their rights.”

Mark recommends calling people by the names they know, asking what they like, involving them in decisions for as long as they can take part, and using what still works: “familiar songs, old stories, favourite foods, touch and routine. In many people, older memories and emotional responses remain reachable long after recent memory fails, which is why reminiscence and music can bring someone back into the room.” To neurologist and Head of Department of Internal Medicine at the Maitama District Hospital, Abuja, Dr Mimi Osamwonyi, dementia affects much more than the person who has it. According to him, as the condition progresses, it reduces independence and quality of life, creates major physical, emotional, and financial pressures for caregivers and families, and increases demands on communities, healthcare professionals, and the health system.

On how to tackle the challenge in Nigeria, Osamwonyi advocates a shift from late diagnosis to early recognition: “Families and primary healthcare workers should be equipped to notice persistent memory decline, repeated questions, getting lost in familiar surroundings, difficulty managing money or medication, personality changes, and a decline in previously routine activities—and to recognise that these are different from ordinary ageing.”