The main case. That is the name of the new drop-in center in Coevorden that opened this week. In a well-furnished living room on the Meindert van der Thijnensingel, people can ask questions about memory problems. “We especially want to be an accessible location for anyone with doubts about memory,” says Martha Lucas, one of the initiators.
People can ask all kinds of questions about memory problems. “Sometimes the thought is that a little forgetfulness is not so bad, because it is part of age, for example,” says Lucas. ”But that could be a first signal that there may be more going on. It is very bad for the people to whom this happens, but also for those around them. They also have questions about how to deal with this, but do not always contact their GP immediately. That threshold is sometimes too high.”
What the volunteers in the drop-in center mainly want to focus on is the so-called ‘feeling wrong’. “Before dementia or Alzheimer’s actually occurs, there is often a phase in which people increasingly forget things or adjust their behavior. This often causes a lot of worry for their partners. They would like to talk about this and hear more information, without that the label ‘dementia’ is immediately applied.”
The plan to create a drop-in center was devised several years ago, when various parties in the municipality of Coevorden jointly endorsed the idea that this municipality would become ‘dementia-friendly’. In 2018 it was decided to create a drop-in center.
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