The Health Promotion Administration has published a short video featuring Olympic gold medalist Kuo Hsing-chun (郭婞淳) and show host Hsu Chieh-hui (許傑輝) that seeks to increase dementia awareness among the public.
In the video, Hsu plays a person training at a gym who has early symptoms of dementia. Instead of placing his trainer’s dumbbells on the designated rack, it shows him placing them in a refrigerator. Kuo, playing the trainer, then explains the symptoms of the condition.
Kuo, who won the women’s 59kg weightlifting competitions at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, setting an Olympic record, on Friday said she always assumed that older people become forgetful simply due to their age, but the collaboration with the agency on the video has opened her eyes to the symptoms of dementia.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Only those who take care of older people can notice such signs, she said, urging members of the public to be attentive when caring for older family members.
People should watch the video and learn what signs could indicate a person has dementia, she said.
The elderly are not the only ones at risk of developing dementia, as the condition affects people as young as 50, the agency said.
The country’s systems to treat and care for dementia patients were established well over a decade ago, it said, adding that an update to the long-term healthcare program provides funding for the treatment of dementia patients from age 50.
Long-term healthcare management centers in cities and counties offer dementia screenings and daytime care for those with the condition, it said.
The agency said township, city or county-run centers can also provide assistance with renting or purchasing the equipment necessary for people to care for a family member with dementia.
They also offer consultations for families that need to modify to their homes to make them more accessible for family members with the condition.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift