As 2024 comes to a close ADI CEO Paola Barbarino shares her end of year message with our global community:
“What a year it has been, for us all! So many accomplishments it is hard to keep track. ADI has continued to raise global awareness of dementia, awareness of the challenges and difficulties that families around the world face every day, but also of the hope that new research and emerging treatments, bring to us. We also collectively continued our efforts to bring dementia to the forefront of policymakers worldwide and together, we had some major successes. All this progress would not be possible without your continued support, each year helping us build a stronger and stronger international network dedicated to improving the lives of those living with dementia, their carers, and their families.
Early in 2024, we launched the global attitudes to dementia survey, which received over 40,000 responses from 166 countries in 35 different languages, a truly global effort. This survey culminated in the World Alzheimer Report 2024 titled ‘Global changes in attitudes to dementia’ and helped us understand how the world perceives dementia today, compared to 5 years ago in 2019. Our findings outlined that there is more work to be done – dementia is still a heavily stigmatised condition and shockingly 65% of medical professionals still wrongly believe that dementia is a normal part of ageing.
The ADI team also achieved another hugely successful World Alzheimer Month campaign this September, a campaign which was able to reach over 81.5 million people and unite them under our theme of “Time to act on dementia”. Dementia associations, advocates, professionals, and carers raised awareness and committed to reducing stigma worldwide through memory walks, exhibitions, presentations, talks, and so much more.
2024 saw ADI supporting the development of new National Dementia Plans; a huge congratulations to Australia, Brazil, Malta, Mexico, and Malaysia and also to Sarajevo in Bosnia & Herzogovnia and Tucumán in Argentina, for the recently launched cantonal and subnational dementia plans. As we move into 2025, we are urgently calling for the WHO Global Action Plan on Dementia to be renewed for another 10 years, so that we may see more countries honour their commitments to implement National Dementia Plans as well.
ADI also grew as an organisation in 2024 – we welcomed 5 new members to the team and said goodbye to two. I’m sure our global community will join me in wishing the newcomers the warmest welcome to ADI and wish those who moved on great success in their future career choices.
Finally, we rounded off 2024 and have just hosted our inaugural End of Year Forecast – a world-leading event presenting in a simple and easy to digest manner the latest developments in Alzheimer’s treatments and what they mean for our community in the coming years. The positive response from this event has been truly overwhelming, and we are looking forward to continuing with this annual event, with next year focusing on diagnostics.
2024 has been an incredible year for ADI and the global dementia community, but we are equally as excited for what is coming for our organisation in 2025, beginning with the launch of our newly updated Alzheimer University. For over 20 years, the Alzheimer University has been a cornerstone of ADI’s mission, by supporting our member associations to learn about creating successful civil society organisations that can serve their community and advocate to their government. Our newly structured, online and in person curriculum will make our members even stronger in their drive to make meaningful change in their nation. We hope it will be inspiring, transformative and fun! All members of ADI can take part in the new Alzheimer’s University and the ADI team can help you learn more. Some more things to keep an eye out for in 2025: The ADI team is already hard at work on the exciting development of our upcoming conference in Lyon, France taking place on 14-16 April 2026, call for abstracts are coming soon but please mark your diaries!
The team is also getting ready for the World Health Assembly in Geneva in May and we may be at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York in September.
Though we’ve had a busy, productive, and engaging year, 2025 will see us continuing our advocacy work to make sure that people living with dementia, their families, and their carers are adequately supported, and we continue to strive for a world without stigma.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your continued support: we are always stronger together.
Wishing everyone a wonderful New Year and a very happy start to 2025.”