A shift in focus from symptoms and disability towards the capacity and potential of the person with dementia is urgently needed to create a more balanced view of dementia and a more dementia-friendly society, which enables people and their families to adapt to the changes dementia brings in their lives. The new concept of social health suggested by Huber and colleagues seems helpful to make such a shift. In this dedicated special issue, a consensus-based operationalization of the concept of social health in dementia is proposed and several aspects of social health and related dementia care are addressed within the framework of European collaborative projects of the INTERDEM network.
Keywords: Dementia and cognitive disorders; positive psychology; psychological and social aspects.