The name of this website and of the wider campaign is Understand Together. The name was carefully chosen, to reflect exactly what we want to achieve.
Understand Together is a public support, awareness and information campaign It is aimed at inspiring people from all sections of society to stand together with the 500,000 Irish people whose families have been affected by dementia. We want to help create an Ireland that embraces and includes people living with dementia, and which displays solidarity with them and their loved ones.
Through Understand Together we aim to weave a connecting thread through all the vital and committed local services that are already in place in Ireland. We want to make them easier to find and understand. As well as this website, the campaign will use advertising and the media to increase awareness. We want to inspire new groups, organisations and communities to think about ways in which they can contribute to building an Ireland that supports those living with dementia and their families in a better way.
We want to encourage individuals, businesses and other organisations to take small practical steps to help build compassionate communities that provide vital social support to those experiencing dementia.
These are the wide ranging objectives of the Understand Together campaign:
- To increase awareness of dementia and its impact on individuals, families and communities.
- To help communicate the lived experience of people living with dementia and those caring for them.
- To provide reliable information about dementia and signposting to services and supports to help those living with dementia, those caring for them, health professionals and the general public.
- To build on and support greater co-ordination of dementia programmes and initiatives across Ireland.
- To promote the uptake of dementia awareness training and promote information about brain health and ways to prevent dementia
- To inspire and encourage individuals, businesses and organisations and communities to become involved in taking steps to create inclusive and supportive environments for people with dementia and their loved ones.
- To promote and highlight the actions of individuals, businesses and communities to support people with dementia and their loved ones.
Understand Together is one of six key elements of the National Dementia Strategyand has been made possible through a funding partnership between the State and The Atlantic Philanthropies. The campaign is led by the HSE's Health and Wellbeing Division.
The campaign seeks to build on the wide range of dementia specific programmes and initiatives already in place around Ireland. It will draw together the people and organisations involved in this work, to join them with wider society, with the health service, with new partnerslike retail and transport organisations, financial services, and with neighbours and friends, to create a national movement which will help support those living with dementia and their loved ones.