Alzheimer Croatia reports that Vrapče Nursing School in the municipal City of Zagreb became the first dementia-friendly school in Croatia, in early December 2019. The association has kick-started the process of creating the first dementia-friendly generation of students and fully educated specialists in dementia care in Croatia.
Alzheimer Croatia has a longstanding and fruitful collaboration with this unique school. Their members lead lectures and workshops in the school and as a return gesture, the students provide volunteering assistance during various events aimed at raising public awareness of dementia. Almost all of the students are Dementia Friends and have set up their own school club.
The curriculum of this five-year nursing school is divided into two parts. The first two years are general and aligned with the compulsory high school programme, and the next three years are devoted to vocational education. It is planned that basic knowledge about dementia will be achieved during the first year of education, and professional education programmes for future nurses and technicians will be supplemented with topics related to the recognition of dementia and ways of caring for people living with this disease.
