Thanks to Leah Bisiani of Uplifting Dementia for sharing an encouraging story from Australia about a program there called Kids4Dementia. Her post on Linked in brought me to a story that made my heart sing. It said things such as:
“Attitudes and habits are notoriously difficult to change. Rather than waiting for [attitudes about dementia] to become entrenched, we decided to try to create them proactively among today’s children.”
The article included this touching video, which includes the young girl and the quote above at the very end:
It went went on to describe stuff we should be trying to achieve with adults as well as children to lessen the stigma around Alzheimer disease and other related dementias:
“Kids4Dementia is a multimedia dementia education program for primary schoolchildren.
Through an engaging animated story, real-life videos and fun activities, 10 and 12-year-olds learn that a person with dementia is still a person, and not someone to fear, laugh at or ignore.
Students learn how it feels to have dementia or live with someone with dementia, discover activities they can do with a person with dementia and how visits to care homes can be fun. Students also learn how to reduce their risk of developing dementia in later life.
Kids4Dementia [was piloted in] three schools in Australia. The teachers loved it, the students loved it, and importantly it worked. Kids4Dementia statistically improved students’ attitudes about dementia.”
Yay Kids4Dementia! Here’s hoping you go worldwide.
My Alzheimer's Story 