perception and identity of G8 dementia summit

1. Who were the biggest winners and losers of
the G8 dementia summit? My survey of 96
persons in the UK without dementia.

2. PEOPLE
Perception and identity of
dementia
Alzheimer’s Europe
Glasgow 2014

4. • Background
• Aim
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion

5. Background
• The G8 summit on dementia was much
promoted ‘to put dementia on top of the
world agenda’.

6. Methods
• an online survey using “SurveyMonkey”
• recruited off my Twitter accounts @legalaware and
@dementia_2014, and there were 96 respondents.
• responses to individual items varied from 63 to 96.
Exclusions
• Persons with dementia were directed to a different link (of the
same survey.)

8. Results
Media coverage
• Overall, most people had not caught any of the
news coverage on the TV (56%) or radio (55%).
• But most had caught the coverage on the internet,
for example Facebook or Twitter (66%)
• Most people did not think the summit was a “game
changer” (53% compared to 16%; with the rest
saying ‘don’t know’)
• The vast majority thought the subject matter was
significant (82%) (n = 90).

9. In terms of language, the respondents were
consistent in not viewing the response against
dementia
• as a “fight” (61%),
• a “war” (84%)
• a “battle” (72%)
• “epidemic” (70%)
• “turning the tide (56%)
[n ranging from 83 to 86]

10. • 91% of people thought it was appropriate
to talk of ‘living with dementia’ in the early
stage (n = 85)
• 82% of people did not think it was more
appropriate to talk of people ‘suffering
from dementia’ at this early stage (n = 86)

13. WHO BENEFITED?

22. Conclusions
• it would be interesting to know of any in-
house reports from other organisations e.g.
patient representative groups, Big Pharma,
carers and the medical profession
• results taken cumulatively demonstrate a
very unhealthy picture of the public’s
perception in the dementia agenda in
England, who calls the shots, and who
benefited from #G8dementia
• responses indicate that the #G8dementia
summit was a very poor representation of
‘living well with dementia’

23. • Background
• Aim
• Methods
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion