The CEO of the Alzheimer’s Society of Manitoba Wendy Schettler says Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia.  She says it’s a brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills that can severely impact the way a person can live their life.  She explains the focus of this year’s awareness campaign is to address the stigma surrounding the disease by sharing people’s stories as every experience is different.  She says what they really want is for people to think about what are their preconceived notions about dementia and would like to challenge people to think more broadly.  She adds often times we think about our worst case scenarios around dementia and we think that this could be the worst thing that could happen to anybody and as a result it impacts how we treat people and how we look at people because we think everything is just so tragic when in fact people can live very well for a long time with dementia.

Schettler goes on to ask people to think about what dementia means to them and how they can support people with the disease to live well and be part of the community.