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Aging Dementia

Helping People With Dementia Live Well

Republic of Ireland | Northern Ireland | 2006 - 2015

People with dementia should be able to get the care they need and for as long as they can while living at home, where they can stay connected to family and community.

In pursuit of that goal, our grantmaking in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland focused on informing policy, improving services, enabling people with dementia to have a say in their care and treatment, and reducing the associated stigma. In addition, support was provided to help family caregivers.

For one of our final big bets, we made a $177 million investment in two longtime grantees — UC San Francisco and Trinity College Dublin — to create the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI). This groundbreaking venture seeks to stem the precipitous rise in dementia by creating a generation of leaders around the world who have the knowledge, skills and drive to change both the practice of dementia care and the public health and societal forces that affect brain health.

Watch: Kathy Ryan is living well with dementia. This video from the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, directed by the award-winning Irish director Ken Wardrop, gives us a glimpse into her life.

A New Path Forward

Because 50,000 Irish people have dementia, a number that may triple by 2041, we addressed current needs and planning for the future.

Promoting Research, Informing Policy

Support for quality research and analysis —such as Creating Excellence in Dementia Care—helped inform the government of the Republic of Ireland’s 2014 National Dementia Strategy.

Improving Services

In the Republic of Ireland, Atlantic grantee Genio successfully demonstrated new service models to enable people with dementia to live in their own homes and to be active and valued members of their local communities.  As a result, these approaches were subsequently integrated into Irish National Dementia Strategy.

Changing Mindsets

Atlantic supported media and marketing campaigns to bring a new and more positive view of dementia and the prospects for positive independent living to a wide national television and radio audience.

Summaries of Case Studies, Evaluations & Reports

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