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Altena – The GGD and the 16 West Brabant municipalities are strengthening their collaboration in the approach to dementia. On Thursday, March 28, administrators, policymakers and experts came together in Altena to share knowledge about the approach to dementia. The representative of Health of the Province of North Brabant, Saskia Boelema, and chairman of the board of GGD West Brabant, Marian Witte, were also present at the conference. One in five people develops dementia. Dementia is currently developing into the leading cause of death in the Netherlands. A disease with enormous impact. There is great urgency to do something about it together. The GGD and the 16 participating municipalities will therefore work together even more to combat and prevent dementia. And to improve the quality of life for people with dementia and their loved ones. The conference had a broad program to highlight the many aspects of dementia in practice. Mayor Egbert Lichtenberg opened the conference as host of the municipality of Altena. Afterwards, journalist Gijs Wanders talked about his book ‘Faces of Dementia’, which contains portraits of people with dementia and their loved ones. Furthermore, there were activities aimed at ‘experiencing and living through’ dementia and creating new forms of collaboration. The conference concluded with concrete agreements to work together now and in the future. Saskia Boelema – Deputy Health, Province of North Brabant: “Very valuable to be here today. An impressive story by Gijs Wanders, followed by activities and good conversations with each other about the theme of dementia. We did things with head and heart and that is – especially within this theme – very important. It makes us proud that, even today, the region is working together on health. This fits perfectly with our ambition ‘three healthy years of life for every Brabander by 2030’. Promoting of a healthy living environment is extremely important.” Marian Witte – GGD board chairman: Prevent if possible, protect if necessary. Through even stronger cooperation between municipalities and GGD, we can deploy, share and scale up targeted programs. This allows us to improve care and support for our residents. We have a regional picture of dementia that is made up of four components: people with dementia, use of care/daytime activities by people with dementia, risk factors for the development of dementia, informal caregivers of people with dementia. Together we are fully committed to this.” Shah Sheikkariem – Health Councilor, Municipality of Altena: We have the ambition in Altena to create a ‘blue zone’ of happy, healthy and vital residents. This ambition has been elaborated in our administrative priority ‘Vital life’. We implement this broadly from the perspective of health. To prevent dementia, we focus on healthy nutrition, exercise and combating loneliness. And we ensure a dementia-friendly municipality of Altena with daytime activities and housing options. We can only achieve this together, with the community. Through this conference we have once again important steps have been taken to firmly tackle dementia together.”…
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