September 2017: Dementia Awareness Month

People with dementia are oftentimes shamed and misunderstood. Lack of knowledge and objective judgment can lead to devastating effects to both the patient and the carer. Among over 300,000 people living with dementia are over 1 million Australians involved in the responsibility of taking care of the people with dementia of which most of them admitted that they have insufficient discernment of dementia. It’s time to promote dementia awareness and help our loved ones.

This factor brings to this year’s theme in Dementia Awareness Month: You are not alone. A quarter of the Australian population describes people with dementia dangerous and distressing. By feeding knowledge each year, we can help elucidate the scars and clarify the misconception related to dementia. This enables people living with dementia to feel comforted and secured.

People also read: Your Loved One With Dementia: Keep Them Safe | My Buddy Gard

The theme ‘You are not alone’ seeks to feature support and services accessible for people with dementia and their carers. It is to secure the general public, the dementia patients, and the carers that they are not alone in this journey. The annual dementia campaign each year aims to educate Australians of the causes, effects and remedies to this condition, hence it is something that every person should get involved with.

In this monthful of events, Alzheimer’s Australia hosts a public forum series provided by Professor Steven Sabat, international speaker and Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Georgetown University, USA. He will be visiting Brisbane, Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne on September 11-14, 2017, delivering his lecture ‘Forget Memory Loss – what about the person?’. His national speaking tour around Australia helps improve awareness about dementia in the community.

For the past 35 years, he has dedicated in the studies of cognitive and social abilities of people with Alzheimer’s disease in the moderate to severe stages, intuitive experience in having the condition, and developing ways to enhance communication between the patient and the carer.

This event is fully supported by the Australian government. Click here to register and attend to these lectures.