Our mission is to provide information, education and training, adapted support services and advocacy for families afflicted by Alzheimer Disease in Quebec. This mission is best expressed through our actions; to learn more,visit our Service page.
Elaborating on our mission
The mission of our movement is to represent people with Alzheimer Disease and their families, to support them, to defend their cause, and to preserve their rights. One of its main functions, therefore, is to disseminate information. The objective of all information is to educate and supply knowledge to those to whom it is addressed to help them confront events in an active way and maintain as much control as possible. In our case, information disseminated on Alzheimer Disease has a number of goals: Making the disease better known Making the general public aware of the cause we are defending Providing people with Alzheimer Disease and their friends and families with the tools that they need to fight the disease and its consequences
Our movement also defends the person-based approach. A person-based approach A person-based approach requires that Alzheimer Disease be demystified. It is based on a number of statements stipulating that: A number of diseases, if not treated, can be as irreversible as Alzheimer Disease. Most people with these diseases, if they did not have specific treatments and interventions, would be as incurable as people with Alzheimer Disease, who don’t have this chance. Although it is not yet possible to cure Alzheimer Disease, it is not unforeseeable either. The development of a person depends, in great part, in the way we look at, envisage, and perceive him or her. It is possible to find means and interventions that will encourage personal development and give individuals the right to hope for a future that is worth living. These means and interventions can favourably influence the course of the disease and give the individual resources and strength necessary to fight against it.
These statements can only encourage the elaboration of a dynamic process oriented toward a creative and therapeutic approach. They also enable us to rob the disease of its power by distancing it. Distancing does not mean setting it aside or denying reality. Alzheimer Disease exists, and people with it are confronted with gruelling difficulties that it is important for us to recognize and identify. Taking away its power, distancing ourselves from it, means to designate it as the common enemy, against which people with the disease, their families, and health-care professionals must form a common front.
Fighting together against the disease means: Counting on everyone’s strengths and skills Creating a space in which everyone can once again play a role and take back the control that is belongs to him or her Embarking together on a creative process based on sharing, respect, and mutual trust.
|
