The first of our four Alzheimer’s day-care centres in Turkey, was opened in May 2011 in Istanbul, in Sisli, the local district, which is considered as the trade centre of the city and is compared to Manhattan. The operation of the Centre was jointly undertaken by Türkiye Alzheimer Derneği (Turkish Alzheimer Association) and Sisli Municipality Office. Since 2011, 101 people with dementia have used the day-care services at the Centre, with an average attendance length of 1.1 years. Countless families have also attended seminars and psychological group therapy sessions, held periodically.
After the earthquake of 1999 and the disaster that followed, first the regulations for houses, then offices and then centres like our Alzheimer’s Day Care Centre were scrutinised, and more protective measures were stipulated for buildings in order to be certified as “acceptable”. Accordingly, the building where the Day Care Centre functioned needed to be rebuilt with the newly-defined standards applied. Since a halt in services would have a big impact on people with dementia and their families, the Turkish Alzheimer Association and Sisli Municipality commissioned another building and did all the necessary modifications to convert it into a day-care centre. The meticulous work was completed on 3 January, and a joyful opening celebration took place with the centre users, their families, people from the local neighbourhood and officials of both institutions.