DH News Service, Bangalore: The healthcare for the elderly has to be given priority and if voluntary organisations came forward, health centres can be opened in every Gram Panchayat, said Minister for Women and Child Welfare P M Narendraswamy. Inaugurating a workshop for Anganwadi workers to assist elderly persons on Wednesday, he said that senior citizens welfare should not be ignored and adequate measures should be initiated to see that they are taken care of. The trained Anganwadi workers would be a paid a monthly amount of Rs 1,000 for looking after the elderly. At present, the workers take care of the children till 2 pm. Since the centre is vacant after this time, it was decided to have a care centre for the elderly till 5 pm. The Minister also said this project would be implemented in such a way that centres at Grama Panchayat level would be overseen by Zilla Panchayats. A pilot programme will be launched in the districts of Bangalore, Belgaum, Chamarajnagar, Raichur and Gulbarga. Care Centre Nightingales Medical Trust along with BBMP is running a day care centre for the elderly suffering from dementia. The centre is equipped with trained nurses and doctors and serves as a respite centre and also addresses behavioural problems. The centre at present does not offer full time care, and patients have their own doctors, but the centre offers mind stimulating activities and also has a physiotherapist for exercises. Dementia is caused by the collective loss of mental functions like thinking, memory, and reasoning. It becomes debilitating when it interferes with daily functioning. Symptoms can also include changes in personality, mood, and behaviour. It affects mostly people over 60 years of age. In India, symptoms of dementia are typically associated with old age and medical care for these symptoms are rarely sought and commonly attributed to old age. Awareness The centre creates awareness about this issue and also encourages patients to manage their lives better through training. The training for managing memory loss is two pronged. One, it helps the patient to retain all aspects that they are likely to forget and the second, it trains them to deal with situations when they cannot recall anything.