Never alone with dementia

Challenge

In Denmark, up to 90,000 people are living with dementia, 3-400,000 people are relatives and the cost of dementia to society is at least DKK 24 billion a year.

Task

The Alliance was established in 2014 by NEXTSTEP together with Ældre Sagen, FOA, PenSam, the Danish Nursing Council and the Occupational Therapists Association.

The Dementia Alliance works both politically and practically to make Denmark dementia-friendly: A country where neither citizens with dementia, relatives nor staff experience themselves alone with dementia.

Results

By framing a common purpose, the Dementia Alliance has gathered large parts of the "dementia industry"; The Alliance has contributed to the official National Dementia Action Plan adopted politically in December 2016. It was subsequently launched at a symposium at Christiansborg in January 2017. The Dementia Action Plan consists of 23 initiatives and has DKK 470 million allocated to implement the plan.

In 2019, the Dementia Alliance launched a Political Dementia Summit for the first time- attended by 15 municipalities. Today, 45 municipalities have locally pledged their dementia efforts through the Alliance's National Dementia Room- a targeted camp for municipalities that work purposefully with their dementia efforts.

Specifically, several concepts have been developed that make Denmark more dementia-friendly. Among other things, a dementia manual, a housing and relatives guide and several specific concepts concerning transport, interior design and training of staff.