Charity

Alzheimer Scotland is Scotland’s national dementia charity. Our aim is to make sure nobody faces dementia alone. We provide support and information to people with dementia, their carers and families, we campaign for the rights of people with dementia and fund vital dementia research.

We have Dementia Resource Centres in 25 different locations across Scotland. Those centres provide a safe and friendly environment for people with dementia and their carers to visit and take part in a wide variety of activity groups.

We are very proud of our 24 hour Freephone Dementia Helpline which provides information and emotional support to people with dementia, carers, families, friends and professionals.

There is a network of Dementia Advisors employed by Alzheimer Scotland who work in local communities to support people with a diagnosis by giving advice and information.

Tabletop Games are known to support slowing the onset of dementia. Find out more in the links below.

Who was Alois Alzheimer?

In November 1906, clinical psychiatrist, Alois Alzheimer presented his landmark discovery of ‘an unusual disease of the human cortex’ at the 37th Meeting of South-West German Psychiatrists in Tubingen. During his presentation, he described a 51-year-old woman, Auguste Deter, whose case he had followed from admission until her death. Deter had been admitted to hospital for paranoia, sleep and memory disturbance, aggression, and confusion. Alzheimer was particularly fascinated by distinctive plaques and neurofibrillary tangles which he discovered in her brain. Alzheimer supported Deter throughout her stay in hospital, going the extra mile to ensure she could stay there as long as possible.

Unfortunately, when he presented these findings to his peers, the response was disappointing. But his supervisor, Emil Kraepelin, recognised the value of Alzheimer’s discovery. Despite the unenthusiastic response from fellow scientists, Kraepelin named this particular collection of symptoms ‘Alzheimer’s disease’ and described them as such in the 3rd edition of his text ‘Psychiatrie’ in 1910.

Nowadays, Alzheimer’s disease is diagnosed largely in the same way as it was in the early 20th century. Alois Alzheimer’s discovery paved the way for the diagnosis and, subsequently, the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. And by losing the apostrophe in ‘Alzheimer Scotland’, we pay tribute to the man, rather than the disease.