DEMENTIA RIGHT project aims to empower people with dementia, those who support them and the community as a whole, to ensure their rights are recognised and respected, by developping a new rights-based approach to dementia and innovative learning materials ICT-based.Dementia, a collective name for progressive brain syndromes, is the leading cause of disability and dependency among the elderly, affecting 50 million people worldwide, a number wich is set to increase substantially in the years ahead in Europe. People with dementia and their carers have the same human rights as every other citizen. However, in addition to the impact of the illness, they often face cultural, social and economic barriers to fulfilling these rights.In order to contribute to improving their quality of life and inclusion, the target groups of this project are: - health and social care professionals, social educators and other carers of people with dementia; - informal caregivers and family members of people with dementia;- board members of care homes and other care organizations, politicians, law professionals, the media and other decision-makers.To empower these groups to guarantee, recognize and respect the fundamental rights of people with dementia, DEMENTIA RIGHT has four main objectives:- Improving the quality of life, social inclusion and dignity of people living with dementia, their caregivers and family members;- Developing a new approach to dementia, human rights-based, with effective guidelines for implementing and supervising the care provided in health/care facilities to people with dementia regarding their rights;- Improving the professional competencies of health and social care professionals, social educators and other carers to revamp their care skills and their approach to dementia;- Making care centres more inclusive and efficient to cope with the different needs of people living with dementia.To achieve these objetives:- a Charter of Rights for people with dementia and their caregivers will be developed to promote a better understanding of dementia, fight stigma and support the decision-making process of professionals, wich includes why this Charter is needed, a specific approach of the rights of people with dementia based on first person testimonies of people with dementia;- an innovative Rights-based Approach to Dementia will be established and an European professional guide on Human rights-based approach will be developed, which includes a protocol with harmonized standards and guidelines to access and monitor the approach implementation;- an online open-access digital platform for health and social care professionals and other carers will be developed, wich includes an ICT Learning Module based on the guide developed and a discussing forum for professionals, to promote experiential learning, supported by practice and social interaction, allowing the integration of the participants in an international community of practice.- Innovative Learning Materials will be developed, which includes an informative video for digital media/platforms and social-networks and specific rights-booklets for strategic targets, such as political decisionmakers, media, informal caregivers or care organizations. Informative sessions will be promoted to the community based on this booklets, to a minimum of 100 participants;- 1 “GETTING DEMENTIA RIGHT” multiplier course and 4 “GETTING DEMENTIA RIGHT” seminars to the minimum of 220 participants in total will be organized, to disseminate the project results and improve competencies of participants supporting people with dementia in the approach.By enabling the participants to recognize and know how to respect and promote the rights of people with dementia, DEMENTIA RIGTH will be contributing to:- address professionals needs for access to specific and valid information, offering them a better, updated, intervention strategy, based on new and innovative standardized protocols and instruments, improve their skills and empower and support them to make decisions that promote the absolut respect for the rights of people with dementia;- empower people with dementia and their caregivers (professional and informal) to exercise their right to participate in decisions that affect them and allow them to have as much control as possible over their own lives, care and treatment and to be treated with dignity and respect and live as independently as possible, for as long as possible;- contribute to a network of care centres more inclusive and efficient to cope with the specific needs of people with dementia;- contribute to political decision-making that impacts the quality of life and contributes to the social inclusion of people with dementia;- improve the quality of life, social inclusion and dignity of people with dementia, their caregivers and family members;- reduce stigma associated with dementia;- contribute to a more cohesive, inclusive and dementia friendly Europe.

Alzheimer and dementia (AD) is an important disease that causes memory, thought, and behavioural problems. It is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly and its frequency is increasing rapidly. According to the World Alzheimer Report 2016, there were 46.8 million people worldwide living with dementia in 2015 and this number will reach 131.5 million in 2050. People with Alzheimer and dementia generally require high levels of care, most of which is provided by informal or family caregivers. Without caregivers, people with dementia would have a poorer quality of life and would need institutional care more quickly, and national economies would be swept away by the advancing demographic tidal wave. People with AD are cared for at home by members of their family. And that those family members, in turn, have higher incidence of stress and depression, as well as lower overall quality of life. Project goal is to enable family caregivers to sustain a decent quality of life as they care for their loved one, and to provide a comfortable, dignified existence for people suffering from dementia. Project aims to develop family carers’ knowledge of Alzheimer’s and other dementias, and their caring skills, to enable them to respond more confidently to their family members’ needs. Project Aims are:1- to help family carers to break down their isolation, recognise themselves as carers, and develop digital literacy.2- to better understand and develop new approaches to address the family caregiving needs of patients with Alzheimer and other dementias (AD).3- to develop better strategies for the care of patients with AD and for alleviating caregiver burden.4- to improve the quality of life for caregivers of people with AD5- to show how can adult education be promoted more effectively in the context of health services in the public. 6- to analyse different approaches in different EU member countries and to use findings of that research wherever needed. The project will be carried out totally 6 partners. Within the Project, two Short Term Learning, Training activities to be held in Portugal and Slovenia in order participants to acquire skills to apply the methodology to adopt new training approaches for adult education. With the project, participants who will participate in short term training activities will increase their professional competence. The project will also provide new ideas to improve the professional knowledge and skills of participants. Participants will have the opportunity to see good practices in place and use new learning methodologies.Within the project local training courses will be organized for family caregivers in order to help family caregivers to stay physically and emotionally healthy. Training courses to the family caregivers will include the stages of the disease, the possible problems that can be seen in each phase and their coping methods (security measures, alternative solutions to the problems caused by forgetfulness, responsibility). In order to reduce the problems to be experienced in changing the patients' home, portable bars / strips that could be placed and placed in every place they went (yellow-coloured from the room to the kitchen, blue-coloured from the room or toilet / food and beverage signs) will be planned to be produced. In addition to this, patients with Alzheimer's may come together with young people and children, organizations which can be closer with soil and nature, hobby gardens and workshops, considering that it would slow down the worsening of the symptoms.Intellectual outputs of DemCARE Project are: Innovative Training Curriculum, Training Materials, Handbooks for Family Caregivers, ICT Based e-learning Module and Computer Games. These intellectual outputs will provide needed information and training to insure that patients' needs to Family caregivers. The project outputs will also provide family caregivers with information on how care should be managed at home, thus the quality of care for patients with AD will increase as well as provide a positive impact on caregivers' psychology. Thus, social inclusion and personal development will be provided.Also, two multiplier events (seminars) will be organized in Burdur and Slovenia with participation of relevant stakeholders for sharing and disseminating the intellectual outputs realised. Thus, the project will encourage them to use project outputs and methodologies and to take advantage of the developed training materials. Project will impact increase their awareness levels about the possibility of introducing adult education mechanisms and their responsibility in promoting social services.

Alzheimer Disease International estimates that 46.8 million people worldwide were living with dementia in 2015. This number will almost double every 20 years. New health and demographic changes increased the demands for new care solutions where informal caregivers playing a fundamental role. There are many ICT products and services, but user-led design and co-creation need to be much better embedded in the design process. The involvement of users in the co-production of products results in a product that is better suited to them. To be in this scenario changes are required. There is a clear need of improving the teaching and learning approaches and to stimulate entrepreneurship in the interconnected fields of ICT, health and social care; universities, enterprises and users need to work together for more user-led and efficient ICT-based Alzheimer care solutions, which is the main aim of this project. To achieve it, we will address five objectives. The first one is to map existing successful national and European level action on co-created ICT-based Alzheimer care solutions. Second, to develop practical guidance on how to implement design-enabled co-production for ICT designers and providers, users and ICT, health and social care students. Third, to plan and run pilots to test the guidance and evaluate its impact in innovation. Fourth, to develop convening spaces supporting an Alliance of relevant stakeholders involved in ICT-based Alzheimer care solutions. And last, to develop a dissemination and exploitation plan and an implementation strategy to highlight project results, to foster dialogues and mutual learning exercises with the aim to ensure the sustainability of the project. Major outputs will be the training course for health, social and ICT; the toolkit for informal carers; and the online community of practice following the development of the two other major outputs and giving support to all relevant stakeholders involved.