Dementia Friendly Memory Institutions

On November 3, 1906, at the 37th Meeting of South-West German Psychiatrists, Dr. Alois Alzheimer, reported on “a peculiar severe disease process of the cerebral cortex”. The disease with which he is associated has continued to elude a cure and is forecast to afflict one in eighty-five persons globally by 2050. Health care providers, researchers, and governments are on notice to explore different ways of understanding and addressing Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) as demands for resources and funding escalate. One of those approaches, person-centered care (PCC), puts a focus on the individual, not the disease, emphasizing ability and enablement, and recognizing people with dementia as having rights of choice, personal empowerment, and self-determination. We expand on the concept of “dementia friendly communities,” embodying PCC, to envision how spaces, programs, and services within cultural heritage institutions such as galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAM), could be re-thought and designed to enhance the everyday life experience of persons with ADRD. Impetus for such initiatives is provided further through the articulation, acceptance, adoption, and promotion of the rights of those with dementia as the rights of persons with disabilities. This emphasis on rights is important as it has behind it the force of international agreement and legally-binding United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2008). We argue that cultural heritage institutions have a responsibility and a rationale for servicing those who have been marginalized across time by what they have rather than who they are.