Palliative care should be available to all those with Alzheimer’s and other dementias

Under the Global Alzheimer’s & Dementia Action Alliance (GADAA) banner, organisations around the world will be making the most of this opportunity.

Palliative care is a fundamental component of the care of people living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias to improve quality of life.

As the world’s population ages it is essential that health and social care systems are built around the world to provide person centred care right through the life course to the end of life. 

There is always something that can be done, even when cure is not possible, and the palliative care approach should be available to all those living with, and dying from, Alzheimer’s and other dementias. 

The Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance have published a Position Paper on Dementia and Palliative Care, outlining the role of palliative care in addressing the unique issues faced by people with dementia and their families and carers. 

You can join the conversation by tweeting and encouraging others to, using the World Alzheimer’s Day/Month hashtags #WorldAlzheimersDay or #WAM2017 .

The Global Alzheimer’s & Dementia Action Alliance (GADAA) have collated a toolkit of resources for individuals and organisations to use to talk about dementia on social media, run a feature on a website, blog or newsletter, or even get involved in media activity. The toolkit is available here: https://www.gadaalliance.org/resources/wam17toolkit/.

Materials include:

• Template web stories (And Then I looked Up Dementia & Take Action This World Alzheimer’s Day)
• Infographics
• Sample social media messaging
• A short film
• Reports (ADI’s World Alzheimer’s Reports & ‘Women & Dementia A Global Challenge’).

Ahead of World Alzheimer’s Day, GADAA have released a new short film ‘And Then I Looked Up Dementia – Women Speak Out.’

The film brings together women living with dementia, the actress Carey Mulligan, iNGO women’s specialists, dementia experts, government representatives and other activists to speak out for women affected by dementia everywhere.

Find out more about World Alzheimer’s Day on the GADAA website.