05.02. Please describe all known public awareness campaigns for dementia and specify the name of the campaign, the delivery channel, the audience, the funding, and the area of implementation | Mexico
05.02. Please describe all known public awareness campaigns for dementia and specify the name of the campaign, the delivery channel, the audience, the funding, and the area of implementation | Mexico
14 Jun 2022
In 2016, the Mayor (Jefe de Gobierno) Miguel Angel Mancera launched a campaign against Alzheimer’s called “My memory CDMX” in collaboration with local Alzheimer’s Associations. As with programs for people with dementia and their carers, most initiatives of public awareness have come from the civil society, mainly, Alzheimer’s and other dementias associations. Since the year 2000, FEDMA and other associations have organised a National Alzheimer’s Congress including both academic sessions and sessions for the general public. The latter ones include information sessions, group activities, training for carers, among other activities.
In more recent years, every September as part of the World’s Alzheimer’s month, different activities have been generated. For example, invitations to different TV and radio programmes (public media) of experts and civil society organizations to talk about some topic related to dementia, whereas diagnosis, treatment options, symptoms to be aware of, etc. Other activities include Dementia Walks organised by FEDMA and the INGER since 2014.
A movement that has quickly progressed is the Dementia Friends Initiative. Since January 2019, the Mexican Alzheimer’s Association, FEDMA, in collaboration with the National Institute of Geriatrics, INGER and the University of Guadalajara in the State of Jalisco, have been developing the initiative’s workshops aiming at changing people’s perceptions of dementia. Currently, the movement is present in 11 (out of 32) States and has trained 5,000 dementia friends.