Turkish Alzheimer Association

Turkish Alzheimer Association (TAA) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization founded in 1997 and is operating with 19 branch offices throughout the country, managed by a Board of Directors of 9 members (six medical doctors, three patient carers and 1 businessperson). The Association has 19 branches in different parts of the country, 2 of these branches and the Headquarters are located in Istanbul. Other branches function in different cities Bursa, İzmir, Eskişehir, Denizli, Antalya, Mersin, Adana, Konya, Manisa, Fethiye, Ankara, Kayseri, Samsun, Karabük, Van and in Northern Cyprus. All branches operate autonomously, serving the aims of the Association with activities, projects and income they procure themselves. In the Headquarters one Executive Director and an Administrative Assistant fulfill the tasks of the overall management of the Organization. TAA operates in collaboration with the Ministry of Family and Social Services. TAA is a member of Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) and Alzheimer Europe. All services offered by the Association are free of charge. Since the Association has no permanent income, frequent fund-raising activities like concerts, brunches, dinners, shopping festivals are organized or activities like national marathons, festivals are participated. Three main activity fields of TAA are: 1. Awareness activities: TAA organizes meetings/seminars/panels where expert physicians enlighten the participants, about the disease and the caretaking of the patients. Also, support meetings are organized periodically where expert psychologists lead “Chat and Solidarity” meetings with patient carers to relieve them and lighten the burden on their shoulders and prevent their burnout. Annually, TAA organizes a national scientific conference, where medical doctors, nurses, psychologists, physiotherapists attend to receive the latest scientific developments in the field of Dementia. Within the scope of the conference nursing/care personnel and patient relatives are trained on “home care”. 2. Day Care Centers and Nursing Homes for Alzheimer patients: As a result of the hard work and persisting demands of TAA the first Day Care Center was opened in 2011 in cooperation with Şişli Municipality in Istanbul, as a model. Then Day Care Centers in Konya, Mersin, Kadıköy, İzmir, Fethiye, Denizli, Gaziantep and İzmit were establihed and a few more are under contruction. TAA is running two nursing homes for Alzheimer patients, one with 41 beds, the other with 60 beds. 3. Home Care and Care Training: TAA, dispatches professional carers to bedridden Alzheimer patients’ homes, both to improve the environmental circumstances and hygiene of the patient and also to train the patient’s relatives or carers. Through this service, the nurse gives a two-hour-training to the carers on how to treat the bedsores, help physical exercises of the patient, etc. This opportunity is given 4 times to each patient and all visits are free of charge. The annual average for the home care patient number is raised up to 500 recently. TAA has 7 paid staff in the headquarters with various number of volunteers depending on the time of the year or activity. The branches employ staff according to their needs and cover the expenses themselves, they are totally autonumous on that.