SUBANG JAYA — When 14-year-old Dinesh Ramachandram was scowled at by his mother for struggling with a mathematics problem, an unexpected protector stepped in. His grandmother, Visalatchi Veloo, lived with Alzheimer’s disease and could no longer remember his name. Yet, she instinctively recognized him as her grandson and shielded him from the scolding.
“She was not herself, yet she never failed to show care towards her grandchildren when we needed it,” recalled Dinesh, now 34.
That childhood memory proved formative: while dementia steals memories, a person’s capacity for love and empathy remains intact. Today, as a clinical pharmacist and university lecturer, Dinesh is turning that lesson into a national effort to transform dementia care, education, and support across Malaysia.
Medication Management and Dementia Literacy
After completing his master’s degree in pharmacy and entering academia, Dinesh sought ways to address systemic gaps in local dementia care. His efforts gained momentum after winning the Merdeka Award Grant for International Attachment, which funded research trips across France, the United Kingdom, and Spain.
His work focuses on three primary pillars of reform:
- Medication Management – Simplifying complex multi-drug regimens for caregivers managing common co-morbidities like diabetes and hypertension.
- Dementia Literacy – Overcoming the misconception that memory loss is merely normal aging, while raising public awareness about early-onset cases occurring in individuals in their 40s and 50s.
- Tailored Integration – Developing localized, multidisciplinary care models specifically suited for Malaysia’s multicultural society.
Rather than copying European models directly, Dinesh emphasizes adapting best practices through multidisciplinary collaboration—combining input from pharmacists, nutritionists, and doctors to target lifestyle risk factors such as smoking and high cholesterol.
Intergenerational Initiatives & Community Action
To engage younger generations, Dinesh partnered with wellness brand AvantHealth on a university competition. The winning team, Synap5e, subsequently traveled across the Klang Valley in a Milo truck to raise public awareness.
Dinesh and team Synap5e launched the Forget Me Not Memory Café, a pop-up initiative at Megah Rise Mall in Petaling Jaya, co-supported by the Alzheimer’s Disease Foundation Malaysia (ADFM) and AvantHealth.
The initiative achieved impact across three key dimensions:
- Interactive Roles – Individuals living with Alzheimer’s were trained to plate food, take orders, and serve patrons in a real-world environment.
- Social Integration – It actively reduced isolation by bringing patients into vibrant, public-facing spaces.
- Youth Engagement – It fostered intergenerational empathy between university student volunteers and elderly participants.
Shaping Public Spaces and Future Care Pipeline
Dinesh is currently collaborating with ADFM and Megah Rise Mall management to establish the shopping center as a fully dementia-friendly space featuring enhanced, clear signage and mall staff trained to assist visitors with cognitive impairments.
Looking ahead, his future pipeline for dementia care expansion includes:
- Inclusive Infrastructure – Establishing dementia-friendly retail environments across Malaysia equipped with trained front-line staff.
- Mobile Caregiver App – Developing a centralized digital platform to provide research-backed educational resources and tools directly to family caregivers
For Dinesh, these initiatives serve a single purpose ensuring people living with dementia remain visible, valued, and integrated within their communities.
