Memory-friendly soci­ety

In a memory-friendly soci­ety, people with memory dis­orders are guar­an­teed the right and oppor­tun­it­ies to live a mean­ing­ful life of their own choos­ing. They are active par­ti­cipants and agents in their com­munit­ies.  

Not only experts by exper­i­ence but also pro­fes­sion­als engaged in prac­tic­al work, train­ers, research­ers and stu­dents par­ti­cip­ate in the mul­tidiscip­lin­ary centre for memory (part of the KAFS com­munity). The centre is an influ­en­cer and developer that pro­motes a memory-friendly soci­ety togeth­er with net­work part­ners. Experts by exper­i­ence also par­ti­cip­ate in co-research, which is one way of exert­ing influ­ence and bring­ing up views and needs. 

A memory-friendly soci­ety pro­motes memory health and sup­ports early detec­tion of memory dis­order symp­toms. A memory-friendly approach is needed not only in atti­tudes and encoun­ters but also the struc­tures of soci­ety. Build­ing a memory-friendly soci­ety is up to all of us. 

“The memory dis­order is only one aspect, and until the end, the person is what counts.”  (Jämsén 2022, inter­view quo­ta­tion.) 

Memory and work – memory health at work­ing age and stay­ing on at work (pro­ject in 2022) 

This pro­ject car­ried out by Kare­lia Uni­ver­sity of Applied Sci­ences is funded by the Region­al Coun­cil of North Kare­lia. Prin­cip­al Lec­turer Tuula Kukkon­en and Devel­op­ment Spe­cial­ist Arja Jämsén are active in the pro­ject.

Pub­lic­a­tions

Ikä- ja muistiys­täväl­lis­et elinym­päristöt: Poh­jois-Kar­jalan ikäih­misillä on asiaa Kukkon­en, Tuula (ed.) (2022) (‘Age and memory friendly living envir­on­ments: mes­sage from older people in North Kare­lia’) 

Muistiosaam­in­en tar­vit­see vahv­is­tusta Jämsén, Arja (2022) (‘Memory-related com­pet­ence needs to be built up’)