Dementia in Europe yearbook 2015 : is Europe becoming more dementia friendly?

Abstract

This comparative report on dementia-friendly communities has been produced as part of the 2015 Work Plan of Alzheimer Europe, which has received funding from the European Union in the framework of the Health Programme. Decisions about the broad areas to be addressed were informed by a literature review on the topic. Agreement on the specific sections to be included for each area was reached at a meeting with 15 Alzheimer Europe (AE) member associations at the beginning of 2015. Based on this, a questionnaire was drafted and later reviewed by four members of the group. The questionnaire was also presented to the Executive of the European Working Group of People with Dementia (EWGPWD) and their comments and suggestions were incorporated into the questionnaire. The questionnaire was sent out to all AE members. In addition, in countries where AE has no member (i.e. Estonia, Hungary, Latvia and Lithuania), relevant informants were identified and invited to participate. 33 organisations representing 31 countries returned the questionnaires. Questionnaires were completed by the national organisation and, whenever necessary, with the aid of relevant national experts in the field of social policy, law and social support. Organisations were contacted again when necessary to clarify certain issues and information was transferred into a database and analysed. The final report was sent to all participating organisations for final approval prior to publication. In addition to this, members of the EWGPWD were invited to share their experiences with and views on each of the topics addressed in the report by providing a short written testimonial (“personal accounts”). These personal accounts provide a powerful insight into how people with dementia would like to see communities, villages, cities and countries become more dementia inclusive and dementia friendly. Personal experiences provided by members of the EWGPWD are presented at the end of each section.