Breaking Stigma, Making Friends

Stigma around dementia encompasses any negative attitude or discriminatory behavior against people living with dementia, just based on having the disease. When a disease is as prevalent as dementia, yet still poorly understood, it's easy for false beliefs to spread. Left unchallenged, these beliefs perpetuate stigmatizing attitudes against people living with dementia, reducing their quality of life. These attitudes extend to the families and caregivers of people living with dementia, affecting them as well. The unfortunate reality is that any person living with dementia is very likely to encounter stigma – even though dementia can affect anyone. No one is immune to the risks of dementia, and there is no cure or treatment that can guarantee prevention. The Dementia Friends Indiana initiative–an outreach of Dementia Friendly America–seeks to educate communities across the state about dementia, break down the stigma surrounding dementia, and implement practical changes that make life easier to navigate for those with dementia and for their loved ones. Indiana became the 10th state with a Dementia Friends program in 2017, starting with communities in central Indiana and in 2019, they went statewide. Here to share more, we have Melinda (Mindi) Winnie, the Dementia Programs Supervisor at CICOA.  Dementia Friends Indiana Website: https://www.dementiafriendsindiana.org/?gclid=CjwKCAjwrNmWBhA4EiwAHbjEQAcDVpjEfGIJGn20c0z4jeG8kjkVqHTFL1305YHKGkPuieEPZrqn1hoCN1kQAvD_BwE  Phone: (317) 254-5465  Email Tina: [email protected]  Learn more about Joy’s House:  www.joyshouse.org See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.