With an increasingly elderly population living longer and longer, we are all, or will be in the short term, “caregivers”: we will have to take care of our elderly, or we will have to entrust this delicate task to others.
Helping those who help the elderly, especially people with degenerative brain diseases, is precisely the objective of the meeting “Relaxing and entertaining relationships: music and dance” which will take place on Thursday 2 March from 5 to 7 pm at the 06 Comprehensive Institute Chievo-Bassona, Via Puglie 7, Verona.
It is a real training session conducted by Professor Alberto Oliverio, a neuroscientist among the leading international scholars of psychobiology and neuroscience and with a rare dissemination capacity that makes his teachings even more effective. The intent is to provide caregivers, whether professional or family, with adequate tools that allow them to deal effectively with people with degenerative diseases, improving both their own quality of life and/or work and that of the patients. Oliverio will explain how dance, music and movement are activities capable of stimulating certain areas of the brain at any age and strengthening people’s social and relational identity.
The meeting – organized as part of the European Re-mind project by the European Pole of Knowledge, a permanent training network based in Verona and which operates nationally and internationally – is open to all and free, upon registration on
The onset of degenerative diseases in the elderly population
According to the ISTAT 2022 annual report, Italy continues to age due to low fertility and increasingly marked longevity; the elderly aged 65 and over are over 14 million – 3 million more than twenty years ago – and equal to 23.8% of the total population.
It is estimated that in 20 years, in 2042, there will be almost 19 million elderly people, 34% of the population.
The data also show that today in Italy there are 1.2 million people in the elderly segment of the population suffering from some form of dementia. In less than 20 years there will be over 2 and a half million people who will undergo disabling forms of pathology of the nervous system.
“A great challenge for the country – explains Prof. Oliverio – both as regards the well-being of the population and as regards the aspect of health care costs. Also considering that we are often dealing with “young-elderly”, people among the 65 and 70 years old – therefore potentially still active and proactive – who instead find themselves experiencing problems in their daily lives and who need long-term assistance: the degenerative syndromes of the brain affect, in fact, the sphere of language, emotion, motor skills, orientation, memory, causing a significant change in the life of those who suffer from it and also in that of those who seek to be of help and support.” By instead applying forms of support to people when their brain is still plastic and receptive – continues Oliverio – the onset of these progressive degenerative syndromes, including dementia and Alzheimer’s, could be postponed, allowing a more serene and satisfying life for the elderly people and those who care for them”.