Dementia Advocacy

Dementia advocacy encompasses efforts by people living with dementia, caregivers, and allies to promote more inclusive, dignified, and rights-based understandings of dementia in public discourse, policy, and service design. Self-advocacy—where individuals with dementia share their own lived experiences to challenge stigma and stereotypes—is a particularly powerful form, as research shows that public attitudes toward dementia improve significantly when audiences are exposed to first-person accounts authored by people with dementia. Digital platforms, social media, and generative AI tools are increasingly being explored as means to amplify these voices and expand access to advocacy activities for individuals whose communication abilities may be changing. Technology design has a role to play in reducing barriers to self-expression and enabling people with dementia to participate as active narrators of their own identities rather than as passive subjects of others narratives.