Promoting the development of communities where everyone can live together

Since 2004 we have conducted an annual Campaign to Build a Dementia-Friendly Community, in the course of which we have received numerous submissions from around the country describing wonderful community initiatives.

An important concept in caring for people with dementia is that each patient continues living in the manner that suits him or her best and that we continue living alongside people with dementia. This means an effort not just by individual specialists or individual facilities but by each and every citizen, working together with the health care, welfare, and government sectors, to build communities that will support people with dementia.

This is something that directly affects you and me. Building dementia-friendly communities means creating communities where you and I can live in safety and security in the event that we might develop dementia.

We hope everyone will take a look at these pioneering programs from our 2006 campaign, and, using them as a point of reference, tell us about comparable activities in your own community, sharing the thinking and know-how involved in those efforts. Let’s work together to create communities where people with dementia can meet their full potential, and where we can all live together.