Dementia in Ghana: Care options available and how technology can be used to publicize them
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According to the 2010 census in Ghana, the population of the elderly grew by 87% between 1960 and 2010 (Ghana Statistical Service, 2013). With this growth in the number of elderly people, comes a higher number of occurrences of diseases that afflict the aged, such as dementia. The objective of this thesis, is to find the care options available to the demented in Ghana, those actually being used by the families of the demented in Ghana, and ways by which technology can be used to publicize dementia and its care options in Ghana. Qualitative research was done using non- probability sampling to select respondents to partake in this study. Findings from this research were got by interviewing medical professionals, family members/guardians of the demented and experts in educating the public on various issues using technology in Ghana. All respondents targeted are based in Accra, the capital city of Ghana. The findings show that there is a general ignorance on dementia plaguing Ghanaians which causes them to respond wrongly to people diagnosed with dementia. However, there are several care options available in Ghana for the demented. The main problem here is the lack of information about the care options available which makes it difficult for families with demented members to access them. Also, technology experts say that technology will serve as a great medium to publicize dementia and its care options in Ghana, however, success is based on which segment of people are targeted as recipients of the messages. Technologies that can be used for the publication range from mass media such as radios to processor- embedded devices such as Virtual Reality tools.