Way back home : a campaign seeking to raise awareness of dementia and promote interaction with persons with dementia

Abstract

Way Back Home is a campaign with the aim of reducing stigma towards persons with dementia (PWD) among Nanyang Technological University students. Helmed by four final-year students from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, the campaign encouraged volunteering with PWDs to put a more personal face to the condition. As of 2018, there were more than 55,000 people diagnosed with dementia in Singapore (Alzheimer’s Disease Association, 2018). With the State’s decreasing old-age support ratio (Singstat, 2018), there is a pertinent need to study more on what can be done to close the gap between PWDs and youths, and equip youths with the knowledge of the condition. The campaign’s strategy was to promote a greater understanding of the condition. This was done through tactics on social media, an exhibition on campus, and volunteering trips, as detailed in this report. Over the period of four months, the team garnered a total of 162,594 impressions on all social media platforms utilised, double of the initial goal. In addition, the overall percentage of NTU students who had positive attitudes towards PWDs increased from 38.7% to 46.4%. Most crucially, the team had 22 volunteers sign up to volunteer long-term with the campaign’s main partner, Alzheimer’s Disease Association (ADA), exceeding the initial expectation of 10 people. The findings and recommendations from this paper can be used to guide future campaigns focussing on attitudes towards PWDs and encouraging volunteerism.