Relatives of people diagnosed with dementia were urged to have their loved ones’ fingerprints taken at their nearest police station to make it easier to find them if they get lost.
Having their fingerprints stored on the police database can help officers bring dementia sufferers home more efficiently, said Tang Li-yu (湯麗玉), secretary-general of the Taiwan Alzheimer’s Disease Association.
The method works better than using a bracelet or necklace because those with the affliction might reject wearing them, she added.
Tang said that, with the population aging, there will be a growing number of people suffering from degenerative brain diseases, whose major symptoms include memory loss and becoming disorientated and lost.
“We need to seriously look at dementia and its related problems, such as people wandering off and getting lost, because someday we might be the ones personally involved,” she said.
Tang, an active promoter of care for those suffering from dementia, said society needs to show more sympathy and support for those who suffer from degenerative brain diseases.
“I once jumped out of my car and walked in the middle of busy traffic to guide an 88-year-old woman to the sidewalk because no one took the initiative to lend a helping hand,” she said.
Besides holding special courses for the public to learn more about dementia and its symptoms, Tang said the association is cooperating with stores and restaurants to help take missing people home.
“We are designing a dementia-friendly sticker for shops that are willing to offer the elderly assistance,” she said, adding that the project would be launched soon.
“There is no shame in suffering from dementia,” said Wang Fu Yueh-li, whose 87-year-old husband was diagnosed with dementia a year ago.
Wang said she would like people to treat those with dementia like normal people, adding that their only problem is that they are more forgetful than other people and sometimes more irritable.
A total lunar eclipse coinciding with the Lantern Festival on March 3 would be Taiwan’s most notable celestial event this year, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said, urging skywatchers not to miss it. There would be four eclipses worldwide this year — two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses — the museum’s Web site says. Taiwan would be able to observe one of the lunar eclipses in its entirety on March 3. The eclipse would be visible as the moon rises at 5:50pm, already partly shaded by the Earth’s shadow, the museum said. It would peak at about 7:30pm, when the moon would
Taiwan’s Li Yu-hsiang performs in the men’s singles figure skating short program at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, on Tuesday. Li finished 24th with a score of 72.41 to advance to Saturday’s free skate portion of the event. He is the first Taiwanese to qualify for the free skate of men’s singles figure skating at the Olympics since David Liu in 1992.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday held a ceremony marking the delivery of its 11th Anping-class offshore patrol vessel Lanyu (蘭嶼艦), saying it would boost Taiwan’s ability to respond to Beijing’s “gray zone” tactics. Ocean Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chang Chung-Lung (張忠龍) presided over the CGA event in the Port of Kaoshiung. Representatives of the National Security Council also attended the event. Designed for long-range and protracted patrol operations at sea, the Lanyu is a 65.4m-long and 14.8m-wide ship with a top speed of 44 knots (81.5kph) and a cruising range of 2,000 nautical miles (3704km). The vessel is equipped with a
A KFC branch in Kaohsiung may be fined between NT$60,000 and NT$200 million (US$1,907 and US$6.37 million), after a customer yesterday found an entire AAA battery inside an egg tart, the Kaohsiung Department of Health said today. The customer was about to microwave a box of egg tarts they had bought at the fast-food restaurant’s Nanzih (楠梓) branch when they checked the bottom and saw a dark shadow inside one of them, they said in a Threads post. The customer filmed themself taking the egg tart apart to reveal an entire AAA battery inside, which apparently showed signs of damage. Surveillance footage showed
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