German-Turkish Alzheimer Twinning Initiative

Several activities were organised in the context of a twinning project carried out by the German and the Turkish Alzheimer Associations. For example, a meeting for German people living in Turkey, basically in Antalya, was organised. There are a lot of Germans in this area. Despite huge efforts to raise awareness about the event, there were only nine participants. Through a heart-to-heart discussion with those nine people, the Turkish Alzheimer Association learnt that the German social system offered “Lifelong Care Insurance” to its citizens and that those Germans who lived very happily on the Mediterranean beaches whilst healthy would choose to go back home should they be in need of care. Almost a year later, a second event was organised in Berlin in a mosque for Turkish people living in Berlin. It was a full-day meeting and well attended by 160 people who all stayed till the very end! Most of the questions from the participants were addressed to a social worker from an immigration office and the main topic was how to fill in the dozens of forms required to be able to apply for any kind of service from the system. The Executive Director of the Turkish Alzheimer Society was invited to attend a two-week-training course organised by the German Alzheimer Association in Berlin. In the course of this training, both Associations learnt a lot from each other. For example, the German Association was worried about poor attendance of Turkish people at the meetings they organised with native Turkish speakers. The Executive Director of the Turkish Alzheimer Society explained the importance of offering tea and biscuits as in Turkish culture that is the only way to express to visitors that they are welcome and cared about.The German Alzheimer Association had produced a very comprehensive 84-page-booklet for Turkish people in Turkish and asked the Turkish Alzheimer Association to assess the language. The latter explained that it would never work for the “audio-oriented” Turkish people who prefer “to ask” rather than “to read” and for whom word of mouth is very important. The German association then published a link to one-minute-videos on the web page of the Turkish Alzheimer Association. Although the twinning project ended in 2017, the Turkish Alzheimer Association participated in an event for the Turkish community in Augsburg (Germany), organised by the German Alzheimer Association in 2018