With the increasing number of European citizens suffering from dementia, Alzheimer’s and other types of brain related diseases, the care of these citizens has become a significant challenge within the European Union.
The support provided by relatives of citizens living with dementia is of great importance to both the person with dementia, the relatives themselves and the society. If the relatives cannot cope with the task, the need for assisted living facilities is much higher for the family and the society, which creates a significant economic burden for the family and the society.
The main objective of the EDEN – Embracing Dementia project is to create increased awareness of the importance of relatives’ role in the care of family members living with dementia, and a closer collaboration on local level between the relevant local stakeholders.
The EDEN project wants to change the approach of the care of citizens living with dementia from a challenge for each individual family towards a common community challenge.
- A needs analysis focusing on which concrete knowledge, skills, resources and supporting structures are necessary within relatives, professional health care staff and within the local community in general, in order to create mutual learning and understanding, as well as optimized use of common resources, and to change the approach of care of citizens living with dementia into a community challenge.
- Learning and information material to relatives with concrete knowledge about dementia and how a relative of a family member living with dementia can bring the best care to this family member at the same time as the relative takes care of him or herself.
- Learning and information material to relatives, health and care professionals and civil society actors on how to create the best possible local community collaboration to bring the best care forward and at the same time make the most efficient use of public health care resources.
- A learning and information platform developed as a learning society, where the three target groups from the project can create mutual learning through exchange of experiences and testimonials.
- A set of policy and implementation recommendations to support the dissemination and further exploitation of results beyond the project period and partnership.
- The methodological approach in the EDEN-project is action research, design thinking and co-creation processes. This means that all the materials within the project will be developed together with and tested by the target groups. As a result of this approach, a minimum of 20 relatives, five health and care professionals and five civil society actors from each participating country will be actively involved and receive training as part of the project. Hence, a total of at least 150 people will receive training during the project.
© 2020 EDEN – Embracing Dementia
/South Denmark European Office