CUSAT - Project Ubodh

Centre for Neuroscience (CNS) is a research centre at Cochin University of Science &

Technology (CUSAT), and it has been actively engaged with several areas of brain

research since its inception in 2000. In the beginning, the centre was mainly

concentrating on molecular-level research in the area of Neuroscience. The focus was

later shifted to an interdisciplinary approach to study the development of brain from

every dimension. In order to address this, Prajñā was formed, which sets a hallmark

in bridging science and society under the rubric of Centre for Neuroscience. The

meaning of Prajñā is "insight or non-discriminating knowledge," and the literal

meaning of Prajñā is "Pra" meaning higher or supreme and "Jna" meaning

consciousness, "knowledge" or "understanding". The concept of Prajñā is not only

developed as a community outreach of the centre, but also a platform for

interdisciplinary and inter-sector collaboration for setting up a resilient society.

Udbodh is the third project of "Prajna" of the Centre for Neuroscience, in association

with the district administration, Ernakulam. As the title Udbodh means, 'to awaken or

enlighten,' the project aims to establish a comprehensive dementia care system and

encourage society to have compassion towards people with dementia. The project's

goal was to establish the first dementia-friendly city in India. A dementia-friendly

city (DFC) is an adaptation of an international concept Dementia-friendly community

in which the CNS has made several changes according to the regional

peculiarities. Udbodh-DFC envisioned a city where people will be aware of and

understand dementia and ensure support through various care systems that can offer

clinical and social care for people with dementia. Hence, people with dementia can

continue to live in the way they want to and in the community they choose. Udbodh

has developed several care systems in the community, such as a Memory Café,

Memory Clinic, Dementia Day Care Centre, Dementia Friendly

Psychologists, Formal CareGivers, and Dementia Friendly Doctors. In addition,

Udbodh has provided awareness classes to the entire local self-departments such as

the grama panchayath, municipalities, and corporation in the Ernakulam district.

There are 82 grama panchayaths, 14 municipalities, and one corporation in Ernakulam

district. Under the Udbodh project, a few dementia screening camps at various grama

panchayaths were also conducted. More than 100 schools at the corporation were

given awareness classes. All the colleges at Cochin Corporation were given awareness

classes. Almost all the hospitals and nursing institutions at Cochin Corporation were

given orientation classes. Approximately 400 programmes were organized at the

grassroots level, and extensive media advocacy for dementia care was also carried out.

Finally, Udbodh has developed a mobile-based app known as "prajna" for

connecting all the aforementioned care systems to facilitate dementia care in Kerala.

DDUK of CUSAT is partnering with Prajna to develop and maintain this mobile app.

Udbodh adopted Cochin Corporation to build a model DFC. Today, Kochi is the first

dementia-friendly city in India.