World Alzheimer’s Day, September 21st of each year, is a day on which Alzheimer’s organisations around the world concentrate their efforts on raising awareness about Alzheimer’s and dementia. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, a group of disorders that impairs mental functioning. 

The theme for this year’s World Alzheimer’s Month campaign is Every 3 seconds. ADI is encouraging people all around the world to understand the importance of recognising dementia as a disease and challenging the stigma that surrounds the condition.

Every 3 seconds, someone in the world develops dementia. The number of people living with dementia around the world is expected to almost double every 20 years, reaching 152 million by 2050.  

As every year on World Alzheimer’s Day, many Alzheimer associations and other stakeholders around the world will organise advocacy and information provision events to show the global impact of dementia and promote dementia awareness. September is a busy month for our EPAD partners and TDCs, with a number of meetings and events taking place to join the World Alzheimer’s Month campaign. This year, we are glad to report some activities planned by our Epadistas: 

CHUT (Toulouse, France)

Together with the French Alzheimer association « France Alzheimer » of its department, the CHUT will organise an event on World Alzheimer’s Day entitled «Changeons de regard pour comprendre et agir ». Dr Pierre Jean Ousset will give a presentation on Alzheimer’s disease. The programme could be downloaded here. 

CHRU (Lille, France)

Several events will be organised on World Alzheimer’s Day in Lille including a meeting to celebrate the 25 years of the Bailleul advanced consultation. This meeting will be organised for the general public at the “centre médical des monts de flandres” involving many CHRU’s consultants. 

IRCCS Fatebenefratelli (Brescia, Italy)

As every year for the World Alzheimer’s Day, the well-known Millennium gym in Brescia – located in front of the Brescia’s Institute “IRCCS Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli” – organises an event called “Move for Alzheimer / Muoviamoci per l’Alzheimer” to raise funds and support research for Alzheimer’s disease. This year, the event lastes one week (September 13-21) and the program consistes of a series of sporting events aimed at the entire population, such as pole dance, soccer and yoga. During this occasion, some researchers of the IRCCS Fatebenefratelli will take the opportunity to explain the research activity of the Institute at dedicated stands. The programme of the event could be downloaded here. 

On September 21, an informational meeting aimed at patients and their relatives will also be organised at the IRCCS Fatebenefratelli to increase the awareness on Alzheimer’s disease and patient’s care. The Chief Medical Officer, the director-General, a clinician and a qualified trainer of the institute will be speakers at this event.

Karolinska Institutet (Stockholm, Sweden)

On Sept 21st Karolinska Institutet and Theme Aging, Karolinska University Hospital, will recognize the seventh World Alzheimer’s Day. They will be given the opportunity to attend lectures from frontiers, among others Prof Miia Kivipelto and her team, within the field of Alzheimer prevention, diagnostics, and treatment. In a parallel event, sponsored by the Swedish Alzheimer Foundation, Associate Prof Alina Solomon will give a lecture regarding how one can prevent dementia and multi-domain interventions. After that, a joint visit to their new Memory Clinic at Karolinska University Hospital Solna will be organised. During the evening of the same day Prof Kivipelto will travel to Helsinki, Finland to participate in the gala event of Alzheimer Association Finland, where she will receive the first time ever gold medal awarded for her contributions for dementia prevention and patient care. They look forward to listen to these frontier EPADistas during this special day. 

Paris Nord GH de Lariboisiere (Paris, France)

For the World Alzheimer’s Day, France Alzheimer organises an event from 21st September to 23rd September in Paris. In the space of these three days, several topics will be presented and discussed including adapted physical activities, prevention, early diagnosis, treatments, scientific research, nutrition and carers in professional activity. 33 hours of workshops and 17 presentations are planned on the occasion of the 6th edition of the “Alzheimer Village”. The program that could be downloaded here promises to be rich and intense. We are glad to see that thee members of the Paris Nord GH de Lariboisiere are intervening for this event. On 22nd September, Dr Julien Dumurgier and Aurelie Meauzoone will give a presentation about the early diagosis. Pr Claire Paquet will report about the frontotemporal degenerations and the Lewy body disease.

UNIGE (Geneva, Switzerland)

The Geneva’s team takes this unique opportunity to raise public’s awareness towards the cognitive impairments and Alzheimer’s disease. They organise an event at the Geneva’s hospital with outstanding moderators and speakers from the hospital. The programme could be downloaded here. The team is glad to have on board the Head of the Health department at the level of the canton (local state). Their new “Centre de la mémoire” officially launched last February will also be presented including its mission, objectives and future enhancements.