‘The first step is to talk openly about dementia’

From the [UK] Telegraph:

Best-selling author Terry Pratchett is urging greater awareness of Alzheimer’s disease, and says that discussing “the demon” is the only way to kill it. His remarks came at the launch of a new campaign by the Alzheimer’s Society to reverse stigma associated with dementia.

Pratchett, creator of the multi-million selling Discworld fantasy novels, was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s last year and has donated £1 million to research into the disease.

“It’s a strange life when you ‘come out’ — people get embarrassed, lower their voices and get lost for words,” he said.

A report by the Alzheimer’s Society found that  people with Alzheimer’s were being left isolated and even having their diagnosis delayed as friends, relatives and doctors avoided discussing the disease.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 12:32 pm and is filed under alzheimer's, public attitudes, stereotypes, stigma. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post