05.01. Was at least one functioning dementia public awareness campaign to improve understanding and reduce stigma and discrimination carried out during the past year? | Kenya
05.01. Was at least one functioning dementia public awareness campaign to improve understanding and reduce stigma and discrimination carried out during the past year? | Kenya
01 Apr 2022
Campaigns on dementia awareness were held on the 26th of September 2018 and 20th September 2019, at the Kenyatta National referral Hospital. These campaigns, which were open to everyone including the general public are as a result of a partnership between the Ministry of Health, the Alzheimer’s and Dementia Organization of Kenya and Kenyatta National Hospital. There were government officials, NGOs, dementia caregivers, student volunteers, health care workers, and other members of the general public present during the campaign. At the event, various gaps in dementia care and management were identified through formal and informal presentations (Alzheimer’s & Dementia Organization Kenya (ADOK), 2018). The STRiDE project is already addressing some of those gaps by training lay providers to reduce stigma in communities (London School of Economics (LSE), 2018). Specifically, the STRiDE Kenya team and partners developed a dementia anti-stigma intervention that uses a train-the-trainer approach to deliver four psycho-educational group sessions to members of the general public to create awareness on dementia (Musyimi et al., 2022). The components include: (i) understanding dementia; (ii) addressing common myths and misconceptions; (iii) indirect contact (video-based) to amplify voices of persons with dementia and their carers; (iv) social inclusion for people with dementia and their carers using a case vignette. To test the feasibility of the intervention, 50 members of the general public received the intervention which was delivered by 10 community health workers in a rural County in Kenya.
References:
Alzheimer’s & Dementia Organization Kenya (ADOK). (2018). World Alzheimer’s Day 2018.
London School of Economics (LSE). (2018). Strengthening Responses to Dementia in Developing Countries (STRiDE). https://www.lse.ac.uk/cpec/research/projects/dementia/stride
Musyimi, C., Muyela, L., Mutunga, E., & Ndetei, D. (2022). Understanding dementia and its prevention in the African context. In World Dementia Council (Ed.), Global dialogue on LMICs: Reflections – The dementia landscape project, essays from international leaders in dementia (pp. 12–13). London, UK: World Dementia Council. https://worlddementiacouncil.org/sites/default/files/2022-01/DLP%20-%20Essays%20-%20LMICs.pdf