“Dementia Friends” is a global public awareness movement initiated by the Alzheimer’s Society UK in 2013. It aims to raise public awareness of dementia, change people’s misconceptions about it, and tackle stigma towards people living with dementia. Different countries/cities around the world have already joined this global movement, with over 18 million Dementia Friends registered all over the world.
The HKADA joined the global movement in April, 2017. People from all walks of life are invited to register as Dementia Friends, joining hands to build a dementia friendly community in Hong Kong by conveying correct and positive messages far and wide, so as to raise public awareness of dementia and encourage care and support actions for people living with dementia and their families.
The Dementia Friends Hong Kong Logo
The logo of Dementia Friends Hong Kong, a flower of Forget-me-not with 5 pieces of blue petal and yellow stamen, is originated from the logo of Dementia Friends UK.
As loss of memory is one of the significant symptoms of dementia, the forget-me-not logo symbolises the hope and positive effects brought to people living with dementia by this campaign, and reminds the society not to forget the needs of people living with dementia.
Dementia affects 50 million people worldwide in 2019, with a new case of dementia occurring somewhere in the world every 3 seconds. It is projected the number will reach 130 million in 2050. In Hong Kong, while there is 1 person lives with dementia for every 10 local elders aged 70 or above and the percentage increased to about 30% for the age group 85 years and above. As a result, there is probably one in every single family. However, the actual number of diagnosed cases is much lower than these as the diagnostic rate in Hong Kong is just about 10%, which means the early symptoms of dementia have usually been neglected. We believe that the misunderstanding of dementia is the main cause of the delayed diagnosis. As the dementia journey is an irreversible condition, which usually lasts for about 10 years (certain types of dementia may have fast deterioration), and the help-seeking decisions are usually made by the families, awareness-raising can enable early detection of dementia, grasp the golden period for treatment, and delay cognitive declines.
We cordially invite you to be Dementia Friends, learn more about dementia and turn your understanding into action. All persons of any age, gender and educational background are welcome to join us. Two ways to register: AS AN INDIVIDUAL or AS A GROUP.
Dementia is a collective term for progressive brain syndromes. To know more about dementia, please visit About Dementia.
Most people would like to live in the communities they are familiar with, so do the people living with dementia. When people living in the community have good understanding of dementia, this will help develop a dementia-friendly community where people living with dementia and their families will feel accepted and supported.
Everyone can play a role and work together to develop a dementia-friendly Hong Kong by learning more about dementia, changing other’s perceptions of dementia, removing its negative labelling and taking actions to care and support the people living with dementia and their families.
Dementia friendly acts are spontaneous. Be they big or small, every small act of yours can make a big difference!
Here are some examples: offer help to those who lost their way home, show support to family members of people living with dementia, invite friends to join Dementia Friends, share correct knowledge of dementia on the social media platform.
Please tell us of your dementia friendly acts, so we can post to our website to make greater influences for our community. You may refer to As An Individual for the examples of dementia friendly acts and way of sharing.
You can also visit Dementia-Friendly Environment to learn more about the dementia-friendly environment, to help turning our community a better place for the people living with dementia.
