The World Dementia Council has published the first in a series of papers reflecting on evidence underpinning the impact of dementia friendly initiatives.

Globally, more and more countries have seen the launch of dementia friendly initiatives to raise awareness of dementia and help keep people living with dementia well. At a World Dementia Council summit meeting held in December 2018 in London, one of the priorities identified was a project to look at the evidence of impact of these initiatives.

After the summit, the Council established a group of global experts to help shape the project. We conducted literature reviews, held workshops around the world and issued a call for evidence. Evidence was submitted from across all six continents by governments, civil society, business, and people living with dementia and their caregivers.

This is the first of the papers to be published, and considers what different countries, organizations and individuals mean by “dementia friendly” and what the projects are trying to achieve. Subsequent papers in the series are being published over the autumn.

The Council welcomes comments on the paper and will review all comments on this paper and subsequent papers before producing a final report in 2021.

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Image credit: Masahiko Yamamoto / Asahi Shimbun Social Welfare Organization