Happy old age with the "Remember Me" project

The social responsibility project titled "Remember Me" held in cooperation with Üsküdar University and the Presidency of Darülaceze, gives hope to patients who are residents of the institution and diagnosed with mild dementia. The project, which aims at a happy old age, was carried out by Asst. Prof. Remziye Keskin and Insturctor İdil Arasan Doğanunder the coordination of Prof. Zeynep Gümüş Demir, with the support of Prof. Nevzat Tarhan and Prof. Deniz Ülke Arıboğan. The project is supervised by Dr. Nebiye Yaşar.

Within the scope of the project, joint sharing is carried out for ten weeks within the Darülaceze Presidency in Şişli.

It was a period of time that opened the door to the positive theme of relations

While the project is looked forward to by the seniors every week, the project offers a time period where common sharing is made, and the power of being a group is felt. It opens the door to the positive theme of interpersonal relationships.

Within the scope of the project, the psychoeducation given by experts on 'Dementia Disease' for the personnel of the institution is seen as one of the positive achievements of the project.

Instructor İdil Arasan Doğan: "Dementia group diseases also raise the problem of care"

In the research and application part of the project, Instructor İdil Arasan Doğan informed about the project. Doğan said that "With the increase in the number of elderly population, dementia group diseases, which are more common and have become a global public health problem, also raise the problem of care. While it is known that institutional care is preferred by elderly individuals and their families, especially with modern social lives, nursing homes or nursing homes come to the fore at this point. Dementia, which is seen as one of the reasons that prioritize institutional care, is considered as a progressive neurodegenerative syndrome that manifests itself with significant losses in behavior, everyday life activities and intellectual activities and causes deterioration in memory and thought system. In the dementia group, which includes long-term care and burden of care, it was observed that although there is a great need for non-governmental organizations or voluntary studies, these studies are few. With the project we carried out under the Presidency of Darülaceze, which stands out as one of such institutions, it was seen that the group work applied to the elderly with mild dementia had a constructive role in interpersonal relations, provided a positive driving force to the self-perception, and increased positive emotions with its contribution to the decreasing course of depressive and anxiety symptoms."

Asst. Prof. Zeynep Gümüş Demir: "The aim of the project is to draw attention to happy old age"

Stating that they aim to draw attention to the development of elderly individuals in the society with the project, Üsküdar University Department of Psychology Asst. Prof. Zeynep Gümüş Demir said that "During the planned ten weeks, the elderly individuals, who were divided into two groups, were simultaneously administered recall group therapy and cognitive stimulation group therapy. Moreover, an informative awareness seminar was presented to the staff who care for the residents of the Darülaceze. Together with the project, our aim is to draw attention to the development and health of elderly individuals in the society, active aging and happy old age. We hope that many good projects such as the 'Remember Me' project will come to life."

Hamza Cebeci: "Üsküdar University attaches great importance to social issues"

Advisor to the President and Head of Darülaceze Hamza Cebeci, who met with the project coordinators and implementers of Üsküdar University, stated that they appreciated the young academics' personal interest in the residents. Cebeci said that "This is our third major project with Üsküdar University. The university attaches great importance to social issues, and I appreciate them. The fact that they choose the Darülaceze as a stakeholder is another beauty of the job. Including our elderly in projects such as 'Remember Me' shows that they live more actively here, that they are interested, and that the residents are also happy. Within the scope of the information they convey to us, we have the opportunity to enter into a new dialogue with our residents. It is very nice for universities to carry out this type of work. If a technology university does not take its students to the field of industry, does not cooperate with them, does not cooperate with non-governmental organizations, if universities do what kind of studies should be done about the needs of the aging population, dementia and Alzheimer's, how their lifestyles should be improved, what kind of studies should be done about them, it will both increase the quality of the university and contribute to such organizations. At this point, as both Üsküdar University Prof. Nevzat Tarhan or Prof. Deniz Ülke Arıboğan, we appreciate that they are actually involved in this business and that young academics take care of the residents personally."

The closing meeting of the project will be held on December 13 at Darülaceze...

The closing meeting of the project, which has been going on for 10 weeks, will be held on December 13, 2023, under the Chairmanship of Darülaceze, with the participation of President of Üsküdar University Prof. Nevzat Tarhan, Advisor to the President and President of Darülaceze Hamza Cebeci, Üsküdar University Advisor to the Rector and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Prof. Deniz Ülke Arıboğan and the project coordinators.

News- Photo: Ceyda Nur İshakoğlu

 

Üsküdar News Agency (ÜNA)