Paying Dividends: A Report on The Atlantic Philanthropies Investment in Dementia in Ireland

This study examines Atlantic’s investments in the Republic of Ireland to improve dementia care, boost research and encourage changes in policy, and how these efforts have impacted the lives of people with dementia and their families.

The study focuses on investments—made between 2011 and 2015—to provide support for personalized community-based care, brain health initiatives, advocacy, education and training in dementia, and for the formulation and implementation of the country’s National Dementia Strategy.

Among the findings about the impact of Atlantic’s investments:

• The foundation’s dementia program has helped to transform care for people with dementia wishing to remain in their own homes.
•  The National Dementia Strategy is the main policy document to emerge from Atlantic’s support. Without Atlantic’s funding, researchers say there would not be intensive home care packages for people with dementia or a commitment to training and education for primary care providers in the dementia care sector.
• Other countries considering engaging with philanthropic organizations around the issue of aging or dementia care or philanthropists interested in investing in this work will find Atlantic’s work a useful model.

In their conclusion, researchers write that the “full dividend from the investment by Atlantic in dementia in Ireland will not be known for some time. Many of the grants are at an early stage and therefore have not yet been subject to internal or external evaluations … What we do know from Ireland is that the dementia landscape has changed significantly in less than a decade. Where once there was pessimism, now we can be cautiously optimistic that dementia has gained important traction in government public policy.”

Atlantic commissioned this report.