TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Health Ministry has started implementing a cognitive stimulation approach in order to overcome the issue of dementia for elderly hajj pilgrims who are on their religious journey in Mecca. One of the common ways is to actively socialize with the pilgrims.

Generally, initial observable symptoms of dementia include forgetfulness, especially for events that have just been experienced, difficulty learning new things, and difficulty concentrating, including the ability to remember time and place. In a recent case that was recorded, an elderly pilgrim showed the aforementioned symptoms.

The Indonesian Hajj Pilgrimage Organizing Committee (PPIH) Head of Health Division in Saudi Arabia, M. Imran, said cases of possible dementia were seen in Hajj candidates from Indonesia.

One of them is an incident that recently went viral on social media videos when an elderly hajj candidate asked to go home to feed his chicken at home. The incident caught the attention of netizens because it took place in an airplane cabin on the way from Indonesia to Saudi Arabia.

There were also cases where older hajj pilgrims from Indonesia still thought they were still in their hometown as they landed in Mecca.

Imran said dementia is a vulnerable condition that needs to be anticipated in organizing the 2023 Hajj as roughly 45 percent of the total 200,000 quotas of prospective pilgrims are in the demographic where they are susceptible to dementia. Hajj health workers have been alerted to provide assistance to patients until they recover and invite them to socialize with colleagues to prevent dementia.

ANTARA

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