How communities can fight the stigma that isolates people with dementia

Keeping people with dementia separated and secured is a common practice, based on the reasonable idea of safety first for the vulnerable. During this pandemic, however, contact with those in care homes, many of whom have dementia, was cut off at great cost to residents’ mental and physical health.

Isolation and segregation create and reinforce another kind of barrier to those with dementia: that of stigma, which can rob people of quality of life, personal agency and the dignity of risk the rest of the population expects as a birthright.

Research shows that experiencing stigma — defined as a mark of disgrace and humiliation — adds to feelings of social isolation, depression and abandonment among those with dementia. This stigma exists worldwide, and trying to educate people at remove from those with dementia has not proved effective at reducing it.

One approach that might help diminish stigma is to build communities that are more welcoming and accepting to people with dementia.

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