The 2017-2025 WHO Global Action Plan on the response to dementia emphasizes the necessity of developing approaches to sustain physical, mental, and social wellbeing in people with dementia, their careers, and families. Since the publication of this Global Action Plan, there has been some progress, particularly regarding physical and mental well-being, while less progress has been made on social well-being, a well-being dimension whose importance was particularly highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. In human beings’ social connection is established through communication. Hence, communication disabilities in the context of dementia negatively impact social well-being. This Symposium is constructed around three complementary approaches to enhancing social well-being in persons living with dementia.

The first presentation by Prof Yves Joanette approaches the concept of social wellbeing as per the WHO Global Action Plan for dementia, and the WHO Decade of Healthy Ageing plan. It will discuss links between social inclusion and communication, reminding the audience that communication can be affected even when cognitive impairments are hardly visible, insidiously crumbling social life since the very first stages of the illness, while pointing the tendency to isolating PLWD from the rest of the society (e.g., long-term care), particularly in pandemic periods.

The second intervention by Dr Marcelo Shapira will share his team’s Multidisciplinary and Sociosanitary Approach to Dementia Care and Social Well-Being, proposing a gerontological perspective to interventions at the person’s home, including pharmacological and non- pharmacological approaches to BPSD, a co-managing approach addressing complex situations, while learning from the person’s experience.

The third intervention by Pr. Ana Inés Ansaldo will address challenges to social wellbeing in the context of the vicious circle of uncommunication in dementia, and links with BPSD. It will develop the concept of emotionally grounded communication and its importance to preserve well-being through the continuum of dementia care. A presentation of pilot data on an intersectoral research project on the psychophysiological, verbal, nonverbal and markers of emotional communication will follow, followed by an overview of the COMPAs study as means to support person-centered care.

Intervention 1 – Social wellbeing as a central piece for the WHO Global Action Plan as well as for sustaining well-being in healthy aging - Yves Joanette, Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal, Lab Director, CRIUGM, Montréal, Québec, Canada Member of the WHO Dementia Plan Advisory Committee and Former Chair, World Dementia Council

Intervention 2– Multi-disciplinary and Socio-health Approach to Dementia Care and Social Well-being: Experiences that Improve Management -Dr. Maria Sol Rossi

Intervention 3 – Human Expertise and Artificial Intelligence: Empirical and Clinical Evidence on the Role of Emotional Communication in Social Well-Being of Persons Living with Dementia - Ana Inés Ansaldo, Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montreal, Director of the Neuroplasticity Communication and Ageing Lab, CRIUGM, Montréal, Québec, Canada.