Dementia: Behind Closed Doors

Around 1 million people are living with dementia behind closed doors. Thousands of families are left to cope alone with its devastation, feeling overwhelmed, unsupported and isolated as they pick up the pieces where health and social care is failing them.

Featuring the likes of Vicky McClure, David Baddiel and Anna Richardson, as well as families from across the UK, Alzheimer’s Society’s powerful Dementia: Behind Closed Doors campaign has shed light on the hidden reality of dementia and its devastating impact, encouraging people to share their own stories, so we can create an unignorable case for urgent action. The campaign was launched with an ad-break takeover on Channel 4 during the broadcast of Anna Richardson: Love, Loss and Dementia – a groundbreaking Alzheimer’s Society-funded documentary, which also confronts the devastating truth of the condition – to emphasise just how much stories matter. The Dementia: Behind Closed Doors campaign film became the most viewed video on Alzheimer’s Society’s YouTube channel with over 1.4 million views. Supported by celebrities, the launch was followed by a cross-channel campaign which included blanket media coverage, TV ads, digital, paid and organic social media, and a unique public installation in both London and Manchester. Throughout October, this helped to generate over 1000 dementia stories from the public, creating a vital public body of evidence to drive change and make dementia the priority it needs to be.