Alzheimer Derneği (Full member)

Turkey

Turkish Alzheimer Society was founded in 1997 and Turkish Alzheimer Foundation was founded in 2000. The objectives of the both associations are:

• to increase awareness on dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in Turkey,
• to improve the care and treatment of Alzheimer’s patient,
• to improve services for patients and carers.

The population of Turkey is 70.781.568. People over 65 years are 8%. Estimated number of patients with Alzheimer’s disease is 250.000. Currently, most of the patients remain undiagnosed or not even considered as suffering from a disease, as dementia is still perceived as the natural consequence of ageing. Increasing awareness and training of professionals and family members are crucial in order to combat this devastating disease.

The national office is in Istanbul. Turkish Alzheimer Society has 6 branches; Adana, Ankara, Bursa, Denizli, Eskisehir and Izmir. We shall have more branches in the coming years. The national organisation and local branches organise many programmes.

Usually the main caregiver in Turkey is either husbands/wifes or daughters/sons. The community services have started being used especially in the three big cities of Turkey: Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara. But the number of the patients staying in the care centres are still very low though it seems that it will be higher in the coming years.

Although Turkey has still got the young population, the age range of elder people is increasing everyday which means to have more patients with Alzheimer’s disease in the next years. The plan is to have more care centres and more local branches all over Turkey.

We have more members in the Society. The members are physicians, health professionals, carers and volunteers.

Alzheimer Derneği
Halaskargazi Caddesi No:115/4
Harbiye-Istanbul
Turkey

Phone: +90-212-224 41 89
Fax: +90-212-296 05 79
Email: alzheimervakfiSPAMFILTER@alz.org.tr
Website: Alzheimer Derneği