While in Japan this past weekend, ADI Chief Executive Paola Barbarino was interviewed by Asahi Shimbun newspaper in Tokyo. The purpose of the trip was to engage with Ministers, Parliamentarians and the media around the G20 Health Ministers Meeting, which took place in Okayama and resulted in major commitments to dementia
Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan’s largest national newspapers, has been active in helping to promote dementia friendly movements in the country.
In the interview, Paola was asked about her feelings towards the findings of ADI’s 2019 global survey towards attitudes on dementia, which saw over 70,000 responses from people around the world and made up the basis of the World Alzheimer Report 2019. She said:
35% of family carers have hidden their family members’ dementia. It is conceivable that they were afraid of discrimination and isolation after coming out. The wife of the person with dementia in Mexico – one of the case studies in the report – considered committing double suicide. One of the people living with dementia answered that his wife divorced him because of his dementia. Another answered that ‘my doctor started to talk to my family carer instead of me when he found I had dementia’. These are shocking stories.
You can find the translated interview below.
ADI would like to thank Noriyo Washizu of Alzheimer’s Association Japan (AAJ) for coordinating and also Takuji Kiyokawa, staff writer and Kayo Tomono, Chief Editor of Asahi, for shedding light on this important topic.