The Campaign

Dementia affects 1.5 million Australians. In the 2011/12 Budget the Government terminated the Dementia Initiative, leaving no guaranteed Federal funding for the future. The Fight Dementia campaign called for dementia to be made a National Health Priority and asked for guaranteed funding ($500m) over five years, in response to its Dementia Action Plan. The campaign began in October 2011 with a protest at Parliament House. We continued to demand action, sharing the stories of 12 Dementia Champions at Christmas and an assault on traditional Valentine’s Day activity, which resulted in thousands of Valentine’s Day cards flooding Parliament House. A letter of support from the PM and acknowledgement from the Leader of the Opposition. On 20 April guaranteed funding of $268.4 million was allocated to tackle dementia over the next five years, and dementia was made a National Health Priority.

Success of the Campaign

Australia’s political and economic environment was tense - the Government was committed to returning the next Federal Budget to surplus. Getting dementia on the agenda was always going to be difficult. A total of $268.4 million has been allocated over the next five years for dementia awareness, early diagnosis, care and support, dementia risk reduction and early onset dementia; dementia also was made a National Health Priority. This far exceeded original suggestions from Government and is considered as a huge step forward in tackling the dementia epidemic. In a closed-door meeting with Alzheimer’s Australia’s CEO, Glenn Rees, Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, Mark Butler highlighted the key to our success was clear and consistent messages, from consumers and stakeholder organisations.

Describe how the campaign/entry was launched and executed across each channel in the order of implementation.

We began with a protest march on Parliament House (October), attracting more than 500 people, and extended to an online army of Fight Dementia supporters. This day also saw the launch of the Fight Dementia Facebook page, which grew to become the central information hub for the campaign. An advent calendar shared the stories of 12 Dementia Champions online and in paid advertising with national newspaper The Australian (December), the release of the film 'The Iron Lady' featuring dementia, provided a unique opportunity to reach a targeted audience. Through cinema advertising (January), while our efforts to ‘take it to the streets’ (February) resulted in 7,500 Valentine’s Day cards flooding Parliament House, a letter of support from the Prime Minister and a tweet from Leader of the Opposition. April saw the release of the consultation report Consumer Engagement in the Aged Care Reform Process, outlining the need for action.