Your donations will allow us to continue to bring joy to the dementia journey to those affected by dementia in Ireland. 

With your help, we can continue to pioneer new community-based initiatives, like the Alzheimer Cafe, the Summertime Series for people with dementia and their families, and the Dementia-friendly Garden Project. 

Your donations will also ensure that we are able to deliver on a broad education programme that brings training, resources and support to those who care for people with dementia in Ireland.

Engaging Dementia was founded by Sr. Mary Threadgold. She had seen the value of music and touch when working with young people with intellectual disabilities and wanted to design a therapeutic activity for older people who lived in nursing homes. It was especially for people whose communication was seriously impaired because of had very significant communication difficulties because of Alzheimer's. 

The programme she developed - which she called Sonas - was so successful that she was inundated with requests or training in its use. The Sonas programme involves stimulation of all five senses, songs and proverbs to stimulate memories, gentle physical exercises and a time to share personal stories. It's an enjoyable activity that's also socially and cognitively stimulating. We have trained more than 6,000 people to deliver the Sonas programme. It's delivered in almost two thirds of nursing homes nationwide, with an estimated 3,000 older people directly benefiting from the programme.

Over the years, we expanded our work to include other innovative approaches and programmes - always focused on joy in the dementia journey.