There are 250,000 people living with dementia in Greece and more than 500,000 family caregivers. Compared to existing needs, services provided to them are still inadequate. In order to acknowledge and support the challenging role of caregivers, Alzheimer Athens established for the past 17 years an annual event called “Caregiver’s day”. This year’s event was a whole day conference with morning sessions for health professionals and afternoon sessions for family caregivers and took place on 19 March at Megaron Athens Concert Hall. The title of the conference was “There is care, there is hope”. Both sessions opened with a lecture by Dr Paraskevi Sakka, President of Alzheimer Athens, titled “Dementia in Greece today” followed by the lectures of 14 distinguished health scientists who informed the participants about the latest scientific developments in the field of dementia, prevention methods, new pharmaceutical treatments, non-pharmaceutical psychosocial interventions and available services and interventions for patients and caregivers. They provided answers to questions and concerns, guidance and hope to the audience. The event closed with a concert by the music ensemble of the Department of Music Studies of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. It was a great success, more than 900 caregivers participated, and many new members joined the association. Alzheimer Athens is really happy and proud that many other Greek Alzheimer associations adopted “Caregiver’s day” and organised similar events for caregivers of people with dementia during March 2024 all over Greece.
