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Well? Issue 4: Spring/Summer 2004

RAISING AWARENESS
DEMENTIA

DEMENTIA: THE FORGOTTEN ILLNESS

Evaluation of a recent awareness raising campaign for Alzheimer Scotland has highlighted the need for a longer-term communications strategy.

You know the feeling: you walk into a room and forget why you're there. Or you put the milk in the oven instead of the fridge. It's the kind of forgetful behaviour that we all experience from time to time but which, in some cases, might be associated with the beginnings of memory problems.

61,000 people in Scotland mainly over the age of 65 (2,000 are younger than this) suffer from dementia, the most common cause being Alzheimer's disease, an illness which damages brain cells so that the brain can't work as well as it should.

Alzheimer Scotland, which provides information, services and carer support throughout Scotland, holds a Dementia Awareness Week every June which last year focused on raising awareness of the importance of early diagnosis and support by encouraging calls to the 24 Hour Dementia Helpline.

"The issue of dementia is rising up the health agenda," says Rachel Guy, Alzheimer Scotland's fundraising and PR director. "However, there's still a lot of misunderstanding and fear about the illness, largely because many older people learn about dementia from personal knowledge of a family member or neighbour who is usually in the later stages of illness. As a result, they can have very negative perceptions, but in fact there's a lot that can be done through support and information and a number of drug treatments that can help."

Last year's Dementia Awareness Week coincided with a specially commissioned advertising campaign, featuring a bathroom cabinet with a misplaced tin of sardines. Created by Faulds advertising agency who donated their time, the campaign was featured on bus interiors and shelters, press and radio.

The campaign was designed to illustrate the kind of forgetful behaviour that may be the start of memory problems, but was also extremely successful in significantly increasing calls to the Dementia Helpline, one of the main objectives.

"...we need to focus on the majority of the population...for whom the idea of dementia is still dreaded"

However, although awareness-raising campaigns have been underway for a number of years, this was the first time that a campaign was properly evaluated, as the Scottish Executive provided additional funding to scale-up activity and evaluate the campaign in Dundee and Dumfries.

"When you're 'inside' a charity it's very easy to assume that the messages we want to give out are those that our target groups want, or need, to hear," says Rachel. "So this was an excellent opportunity to discover just how effective the campaign was.

"We received two very different reactions: the health and social work professionals told us that the campaign had a positive impact, as they were motivated to learn more and to develop new ways to tackle dementia.

"But the campaign seemed to be less successful amongst the general public. We concluded that short campaigns like this, which last only a week, have limited effectiveness and that we should have much longer-term campaigns using a variety of different communication routes.

"We also found that we need to focus on the majority of the population who do not know what we do, and for whom the idea of mental illness generally - and dementia in particular - is still dreaded."

The evaluation also demonstrated that the over 65 age group was less "advertising literate" than the younger groups, so messages could not be subtle or require decoding but needed to be straightforward and immediately understood, preferably using large print size and visuals.

Next Steps

So how does this inform future campaigning activities aimed at raising awareness of dementia across Scotland?

A further two-year strategy is now underway, designed to take a longer-term view of awareness-raising and to further develop the messages and increase public understanding of dementia.

"Some elements of this new strategy are already becoming clear: for example, the need to work towards getting information about dementia across at each stage of the journey from recognition, diagnosis, understanding and support. This will help meet the Scottish Executive's agenda of promoting mental health and well-being in later life, reducing the impact of a diagnosis, increasing understanding and helping to eliminate the stigma of dementia and subsequent discrimination."

Dementia Awareness Week
30 May - 6 June 2004

Rachel Guy, Alzheimer Scotland
t: 0131 243 1453
e:rguy@alzscot.org
www.alzscot.org

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