A nationwide subscription service for Norwegians suffering from dementia is being developed by the private health-related company Noen AS with backing from the Kavli Trust.
The trust is also providing funds for the development of a computerised tool which can be used to assist dementia sufferers and their families.
“We’ve become an important supplement to families and to public health and care services in a number of local authorities in the Trøndelag area of mid-Norway,” says Heidi Wang (below), founder and head of Noen.
“Support from the Kavli Trust will help us to reach our ambition of becoming a nationwide concept. People with dementia often fall outside public health service provision.”
She founded Noen after her own father developed the condition and noticed how he changed and how he was clearly affected by the realisation that something was no longer as it should be. The family eventually had the dementia diagnosis confirmed.
Helping sufferers to continue living at home makes very good financial sense for local authorities, since it costs about NOK 750 000 to support a person in a home. Noen allows councils to buy a service at a 10th of that cost and to keep people at home.
“Our service is focused on the individual and builds on the principle of taking care of what remains intact in a person who develops dementia,” Wang explains.
“By looking after the ‘healthy’ component through support for performing daily tasks, we help the sufferer to manage much, much longer for themselves and to preserve their dignity.”
For more information of the Kavli Trust’s humanitarian projects, see: www.http://kavlifondet.no.