World Alzheimer's Day™ 2002
The World Alzheimer's Day™ campaign in 2002 focused on the importance of recognising the early symptoms of dementia. The underlying message being that dementia and memory problems are not a normal part of ageing.
Old age or disease? Recognising dementia
Many people think that becoming more forgetful or repeating oneself in conversation is just a natural part of getting older. Sometimes, though, increasing memory loss may be an early sign of dementia. Old age does not cause memory loss but when memory loss starts to disrupt everyday life, it could be a time to get help.
Other common symptoms of dementia include difficulty performing familiar tasks, problems in naming everyday objects, getting lost easily even in familiar places and changes in mood, personality and behaviour.
Recognising the symptoms of dementia is the first step towards receiving a diagnosis and help. Although there is no cure for most causes of dementia, a diagnosis can help reduce the anxiety of a person with dementia and their family, as well as provide a chance of benefiting from existing treatments, access to resources, information and more time to plan for the future.
Over 50 Alzheimer associations held events on World Alzheimer's Day™ 2002 (Saturday 21 September) to raise awareness about dementia, and ADI published the World Alzheimer's Day™ bulletin.
Read the World Alzheimer's Day bulletin for 2002
2002 PDF: 133KB / 4 pages
English | Spanish
Where next?
- Report on events of World Alzheimer's Day™ 2002
- Common early symptoms of dementia
- Take the dementia myth/fact quiz
- Frequently asked questions
- Previous World Alzheimer's Day™ campaigns
