Advocacy in dementia

Abstract

Advocacy in dementia can be defined best as the act or process by an individual or a group influencing or otherwise supporting within social, health, economic, and political systems and organizations better dementia care at large. Dementia advocacy encompasses many activities including among others public speaking and media campaigns, sharing knowledge and experiences, providing resources including funding, establishing groups and organizations, developing and presenting guidelines, criteria, programmes, strategies, and policies and consulting regional, national, and international decision-makers to promote, support, and otherwise further dementia care. Recently, the World Health Organization recognized dementia as a global epidemic with the majority of people afflicted by dementia originating from low- to middle-income countries where access to dementia care is limited or absent. Indeed, there is an urgent need to develop cost-effective strategies to deliver sufficient and efficient dementia care as well as to optimize needed resources including finances. This need can only be fulfilled with diligent advocacy, which initially played a crucial role in defining the modern notion of dementia and more recently propelled dementia to the centre stage of healthcare priorities across the globe.