Why you should sponsor a young person to study a MSc degree in Dementia

Rianna Patterson
7 min readMar 4, 2023
Speaking about dementia at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Rwanda

1. Improve the quality of life for people with dementia

Dementia is one of the biggest medical challenges of our time and is arguably the leading cause of death. Lancet Global data estimates that 574 people are living with dementia in Dominica, is expected to raise to 999 people by 2050. Although these numbers may seem small, it is still a concern.

My involvement with dementia began when my grandfather passed away from it in Dominica when I was 16. I would spend my time at the hospital with my grandfather. This experience highlighted to me the lack of understanding of dementia in public health facilities, cultural stigma towards dementia, the lack of access to support for young carers and insufficient research and resources for treatments for dementia. I founded a youth-led dementia charity in Dominica in memory of him, to support families and caretakers who look after someone with dementia.

According to Alzheimer’s Disease International, every 3 seconds someone develops dementia and there are over 55 million people worldwide living with dementia in 2020. This number will almost double every 20 years, reaching 78 million in 2030 and 139 million in 2050. It is imperative that we are aware of a healthy lifestyle we can adopt to improve…

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Rianna Patterson

TEDx Speaker, Personal Development Coach and Founder of Dominica Dementia Foundation. Support my work: http://buymeacoffee.com/riannapatterson