Wednesday 30th April 2014
UK
Health Radio Medical News Update
Facebook and Dementia
Interesting news from BBC Health
that Facebook users are being invited to experience what it is like to live
with dementia as a way of raising awareness about the disease.
The FaceDementia app,
developed by Alzheimer's Research UK, is designed to take over a personal
Facebook page, and for a temporary period, removes important memories, in the
same way that dementia affects the brain.
Users will see personal photos,
vital information and updated status simply disappear before their eyes. The real Facebook page however, will remain
intact.
The app does not retain any data
or scramble a user's real timeline or information on Facebook but instead
presents an overlay that will show what the effects of dementia would be.
People can also watch short
videos featuring people affected by dementia explaining what impact the
symptoms, simulated by FaceDementia, have had on them or their relatives.
Rebecca Wood, the chief executive
of Alzheimer's Research UK, said: "Facebook's appeal is that it can gather
your friends and family and keep them close, with memories and contacts all
contained within one space. It also develops a diary of your life since you
joined the site and documents your thoughts and musings during that time.
We wanted to use these Facebook
features to illustrate how those thoughts and memories can be confused, or
forgotten altogether, as experienced by some of the hundreds of thousands of
people across the UK who are living with dementia.
Stigma around dementia is due in
part to a lack of public awareness and understanding, so FaceDementia will be
invaluable in helping people better understand the condition."
She urged people to take part and
share the app with their friends and family on Facebook. I think this is a very useful and interesting
exercise and would love to hear from any of you that try it.
This is Amanda Thomas for UK Health Radio with your
Medical News On the Hour kindly sponsored by 1-stop-health-shop.com
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