Principles on how to involve people living with dementia in service design and planning have been explored as part of the STRiDE Project. The paper was written by STRiDE colleagues, Erica Breuer, Emily Freeman, Suvarna Alladi, Marina Breedt, Ishta Govia, Mariana López-Ortega, Christine Musyimi, Deborah Oliveira, Meera Pattabiraman, Tara Sani, Marguerite Schneider, Kate Swaffer, Dubhglas Taylor, Eileen Taylor and Adelina Comas-Herrera, and published in the journal Dementia this week.

Involving people living with dementia in service design and planning has become more common in high-income countries. It remains rare in low- and middle-income countries where two-thirds of the world’s people with dementia live. In this commentary article, the authors explore the barriers to inclusion of people living with dementia in planning in low- and middle-income countries and make a case for the inclusion of people living with dementia in care and service planning. They suggest how this can be done at individual, community or national and state level using the following principles:

1. respecting the rights of people living with dementia to self-determination;
2. valuing people living with dementia’s unique understanding of dementia;
3. creating a culture of active inclusion which creates a space for people living with dementia to participate and
4. ensuring appropriate accommodations are in place to maximise participation.

Full paper: