'Sense of shame'

For a long time, families confined cognitively impaired seniors to the home and delayed sending them to care facilities until they had lost control of their emotions and behavior. The refusal stemmed from a sense of shame prompted by the illness.

Now, the construction of cognitive friendly communities is changing things.

"We used to call it 'senile dementia', and then we came up with 'cognitive disease'. Now we have a more professional term: 'cognitive impairment'," said Chen Yuebin, director of the bureau's aged care center.

He noted that few people use the word "disease" now, which strongly indicates that the sense of shame is disappearing. The most noticeable effect of that has been the emergence of a large number of "hidden families", which have at least one cognitively impaired member.

The bureau's latest data show that 58,084 people in 27 of the pilot neighborhoods have undergone cognitive impairment risk assessments. The average of 2,151 people per neighborhood far exceeds the bureau's target.

Changning district's Jiangsu Road neighborhood has completed 10,700 assessments, accounting for more than 80 percent of its seniors.

"Before, people often ignored early signs of elderly cognitive impairment because they didn't understand or pay attention to the illness. They only consulted doctors when the patient lost their way, exhibited abnormal behavior, injured, or even self-injured, themself. That meant they missed the best time for intervention," said Jiang Rui, deputy director of the city's civil affairs bureau.

"Risk assessment of cognitive impairment, which is an important focus of the pilot project, is crucial. Early intervention means professional help can slow the progress of the illness and improve the patient's quality of life."