Last week was set aside to mark Dementia Awareness Week
With the number of people who have the illness set to double over the next 20 years, organisers would like to encourage families to talk about dementia in a bid to dispel myths and to help those who are affected.
Events to mark the awareness week were set up in an ongoing drive to make Edinburgh a dementia friendly city by a partnership of the city of Edinburgh Council, Alzheimer Scotland and NHS Lothian.
The group also launched the “6 little things” campaign this February, which tells people how to cure the stigma of dementia by knowing six simple facts and the leaflet is embedded below.
Dementia friendly communities have sprung up in places such as Portobello, South Queensferry, Barton and Cramond, with a new initiative launching in the Pentlands this week – check out local pubs for “6littlethings” campaign beer mats.
Find details of all the road-show events which were run in the city this week was on the Council’s website.
But this initiative is about more than one week, and is really just meant to be a starting point for discussion. If you run a dementia related organisation or event then we would like to hear from you about it.
Councillor Ricky Henderson, Health, Social Care and Housing Convener, said: “The awareness week is the ideal opportunity for us all to get involved in conversations about the illness. While it’s great that we’re living longer, this is leading to increasing numbers of people experiencing dementia.
“Let’s get conversations going with loved ones about dementia and together we can beat the stigma and also support those who have it.”
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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
