2010 Volume 13 Issue 2 Pages 67-76
The present study was conducted to examine volunteer activities in communities designed to increase awareness of dementia and their future directions. We selected twenty-one registered volunteer workers of local organizations in two cities involved in raising awareness of dementia, conducted a semi-structured interview regarding: 1) their activities and 2) future directions, and performed a qualitative analysis of the results using an inductive approach.
1) Their volunteer activities included: “increasing self-awareness”, “group activities to raise people’s awareness of dementia”, “activities associated with their daily job and what they had learned at their workplaces”, and “community activities to support the elderly”. 2) Their plans and intentions regarding future directions were as follows: “doing what they can now”, “promoting collaboration with other volunteers”, “helping improve the volunteer organization”, “raising people’s awareness of dementia”, “helping dementia patients and their families”, and “creating a comfor table living environment for everyone”.
Most volunteer workers apply their work experience and what they have learned at their workplaces to their volunteer activities, while improving their awareness of dementia. In addition to helping dementia patients as much as possible by doing what they can, they also have a long-term vision to create a comfortable living environment for everyone.
