EISAI LAUNCHES EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS FOR UNDERSTANDING DEMENTIA AND THINKING ABOUT WHAT ONE CAN DO FOR ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN JAPAN

(This educational materials ended as of March 2021.)

Eisai Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Tokyo, CEO: Haruo Naito, “Eisai”) announced that it has created educational materials for understanding dementia and thinking about what one can do for elementary and secondary school students, and has commenced marketing these materials primarily to local governments, educational institutions as well as medical and nursing care professionals from today.

Five types of materials have been created, an educational DVD, textbooks for elementary and secondary school students as well as guides for instructors for each textbook. The DVD is a live action drama that tells the story of a family whose grandmother has dementia, and the contents enable viewers to learn what is dementia, the feelings of someone with dementia, and how to interact with people with dementia. In addition to an outline of the DVD, the textbooks contain basic knowledge on the aging society and dementia, as well as points on how to interact with people with dementia. The textbooks can be used in lessons or group work. The contents of the guides for instructors include model lesson plans, question and answer ideas and reference materials, as well as worksheets that can be used in group work.

Yukimichi Imai MD., PhD., President of the Japanese Society for Dementia Care, Director of Wako Hospital and supervisor for these materials, stated: “The person that begins suffering dementia is the one who is most distressed, and changes in symptoms may occur depending on how their family and friends act. In addition, the number of people with dementia in 2025 is estimated to reach approximately 7 million, affecting one out of every five elderly people aged over 65. However, with the rise of the nuclear family, there are more and more children and students who have few opportunities to interact with people with dementia. We believe that learning about dementia at school and thinking together about the feelings of those with dementia and how to interact with them will be a very important first step in this era of a progressively aging society. I highly endorse Eisai's efforts in creating these educational materials to think about living together with dementia.”

Hideki Hayashi, Representative Corporate Officer, Japan Business and CIO, Eisai, commented: “During our work on building communities that co-exist with dementia in collaboration with local governments, medical and nursing care professionals as well as other stakeholders, we recognized the need for dementia education in the classroom, and created educational materials that can be used in lessons such as group work to think about the feelings of people with dementia and how to interact with them, as well as for gaining knowledge on dementia. Through these materials, we hope that children will become concerned about their own grandparents and the state of elderly people in public spaces as a member of the local community, and that this will spark responses such as consulting surrounding adults when they sense something is amiss.”

Media Inquiries:

Public Relations Department,
Eisai Co., Ltd.

+81-(0)3-3817-5120

< Notes to editors >

1.Outline of the Educational Materials

1)Composition of Educational Materials

A total of five types of educational materials for elementary and secondary school students are available (only in Japanese).

  • Educational DVD “Grandma is Here to Stay - What's Dementia?”
  • Textbook for elementary school students
    “Do you know? Let's think about dementia! What can I do”
  • Textbook for secondary school students
    “Supporting together - understanding and thinking about dementia”
  • Guide for Instructors of Elementary School Students
  • Guide for Instructors of Secondary School Students

Telling the story of a family who begins living together with their grandmother, the DVD contains an approximately 18 minute live action drama with the content common to both elementary and secondary school students. The story shows the daily activities of the grandmother who has dementia and the change in emotions and responses of the main character who is a 5th grade elementary school student, the older sister who is a 2nd grade junior high school student and the parents, spanning the time from living together and dementia diagnosis through to returning to peaceful life.
The DVD can be played on a DVD player or a computer with DVD playback functionality. Comprised of 9 chapters in total, the movie can also be watched by chapter.
The textbooks are B5 in size and 12 pages in length, and the guide for instructors is A4 and 8 pages in length.
The DVD and textbook can be combined for use as a single period lesson.

Educational Materials

2)Retail Price (incl. tax, excl. delivery fees)

*You can scroll to the left or right here

DVD 3,100 yen per disc
Textbooks (50 books) 4,000 yen (80 yen per textbook)
(For elementary school students and secondary school students, respectively)
Set (one DVD + 50 textbooks + one guide for instructors) 7,340 yen
(3,100 yen for the DVD, 240 yen for the guide for instructors and 80 yen per textbook)

2.About Eisai Co., Ltd.

Eisai Co., Ltd. is a leading global research and development-based pharmaceutical company headquartered in Japan. We define our corporate mission as “giving first thought to patients and their families and to increasing the benefits health care provides,” which we call our human health care (hhc) philosophy. With approximately 10,000 employees working across our global network of R&D facilities, manufacturing sites and marketing subsidiaries, we strive to realize our hhc philosophy by delivering innovative products to address unmet medical needs, with a particular focus in our strategic areas of Neurology and Oncology.

Leveraging the experience gained from the development and marketing of Aricept®, a treatment for Alzheimer's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies, Eisai has been working to build communities that co-exist with dementia in cooperation with various stakeholders including the government, healthcare professionals and care workers, and is estimated to have held over ten thousand dementia awareness events worldwide. As a pioneer in the field of dementia treatment, Eisai is striving to not only develop next generation treatments but also to develop diagnosis methods and provide solutions.

For more information about Eisai Co., Ltd., please visit http://www.eisai.com(New Window)