Setting a sign of solidarity for people with dementia: That is the goal of the Bathrobe Challenge.

The vice presidents of the UW/H have also participated in the campaign: Jan Ehlers was a guest at the SWITCH conference in a bathrobe, Petra Thürmann stood in slippers at the bus stop in Witten, and Dirk Jakobs charged his e-car in a bathrobe before meeting Petra Thürmann at Café Larix.

"I'm up for a lot of things and thought the idea was incredibly good, until I left my office in my bathrobe and walked through the university to the conference once. Zack, there it was gone, my comfort zone," Jan Ehlers recalls. "The looks, the whispering, the shaking of heads... what is Ehlers up to now? That took some getting used to. How must people feel who don't know why people are laughing at them or shaking their heads? Therefore, go up to them and support instead of laughing at them."

Wearing a bathrobe in public makes you stand out. And that's what we're all about: generating attention, showing public solidarity, not leaving people with dementia alone. They and their relatives do not need pity, but the certainty that politics and society are committed to them.

The bathrobe inevitably entices onlookers to take a closer look at the topic and, in the best case, to get involved in research. This makes the collaboration on dementia research with the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) at the Witten site, which was established in cooperation with the Department of Nursing Science and the Faculty of Health, all the more important.

More information on the Bathrobe Challenge at www.bademantelchallenge.de.