The 2021 World Alzheimer’s Month marked the tenth anniversary of this awareness raising campaign around Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Since its inception, World Alzheimer’s Month has centred around a theme each year, in order to draw attention to or address a particular area which is pertinent to the lives of those living with dementia and carers.
The theme for this year’s campaign was ‘Know Dementia, Know Alzheimer’s’ and aimed to shine a light on the warning signs of dementia and the importance of a timely diagnosis, as well as the stigma that continues to persist around dementia.
Each year, a global community of advocates, consisting of Alzheimer and dementia associations, those living with dementia, carers, researchers, scientists, health and care professionals and the general public, work tirelessly over the month of September to spread awareness of the campaign. Despite the ongoing complications of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 campaign was no exception.
By the end of September, over 111 countries had participated in the 2021 World Alzheimer’s Month campaign and online we saw an extraordinary amount of participation from the general public, ADI members and businesses around the world, with the Know Dementia, Know Alzheimers hashtags being widely used and translated in multiple languages.
ADI members hosted events from all corners of the globe, many of which garnered widespread media attention. By the end of the first 10 days of World Alzheimers Month, there were in excess of 140 different news or media articles published, including but not limited to: radio interviews with BBC World Service, Television interviews with ROYA TV (Jordan) and CTV News (Canada) and articles published online in The Straits Times (Singapore), The Star (Malaysia) and Doha News (Qatar).
This World Alzheimer’s Month was a testament that awareness raising around Alzheimer’s and dementia continues to gain more traction, support and attention each year. Despite a global pandemic, much has been achieved. The determination and tenacity of ADI members to continue raising awareness in any way possible, both virtually and in person, has made this month as successful as it was. We would like to thank everyone who participated and made this year’s World Alzheimer’s Month campaign as successful as it was.
All of this would also not be possible without the support of our World Alzheimer’s Month sponsors, and a special thanks to Acadia, Biogen, Eli Lilly, GE Healthcare, GT Diagnostics, Janssen, MSD, Novo Nordisk, Otsuka, Roche for their generosity.