Alzheimer Bulgaria is currently working on the project “Dementia Dog Friends”, funded by Solidarity Projects, which is part of the European Solidarity Corps programme. The project started at the end of summer 2021 and has a duration of one year. The funding for it is EUR 6,740. The objectives of the programme include engaging young people with social problems and improving their project management skills. The project is therefore carried out by five young volunteers who are supported and guided by a mentor from Alzheimer Bulgaria. The project aims at raising awareness of the problems around communication with people with dementia and the need to improve this. It also focuses on the need to improve society’s attitude towards stray animals. To sum up, the results of the Dementia Dog Friends project aim at providing a new social service that involves stray animals in sanctuaries so as to improve the emotional state of people with dementia.
Project activities include meetings between people with dementia from the Alexandrovska nursing home for older people, and dogs from the "Every Dog Matters EU" sanctuary. The five volunteers and psychologists will take part in the meetings in order to research the benefits of such communication, and will prepare a report that will be published on the Alzheimer Bulgaria website. Two training sessions for volunteers have also been held, so far, as part of the project activities. Topics covered include: “What is dementia?”, “How to communicate with people with dementia in nursing homes?”, and “How to manage projects and create reports”. Alzheimer Bulgaria is working together with the "Every Dog Matters EU" sanctuary, which supports the idea of inclusion of animals in social and health services in order to improve the emotional state of patients, as well as to include animals in society. A training session will be held in April 2022, at the sanctuary, about how to train dogs to include them in patient care and in particular in the care for people with dementia.
