Date: 25 May 2016

Whiddon has been named a runner up for their advocacy campaign, SignMyName, in the Australian Not-For-Profit Technology Awards Best Social Media Campaign.

In Brain Awareness Week 2015, Whiddon ran a high profile social campaign to raise awareness about the debilitating impact of cognitive decline, which many older Australians experience as a consequence of impairments such as dementia, stroke, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, brain cancer or acquired brain injury.

Many older people with cognitive decline experience frustration at feeling ‘locked inside’ and knowing what they want to say or do, but not being able to articulate or physically perform what their brain is telling them. The ‘SignMyName’ campaign was created to provide a glimmer of insight into living with cognitive decline and what it would feel like to be unable to perform such a task as signing your own name. Our goal was to get all Australians thinking about the mental wellbeing of our older generations during Brain Awareness Week, and beyond.

Whiddon’s campaign was a huge success, with residents, staff, community members and celebrities signing their names and posting selfies to social media to raise awareness. The success of SignMyName also saw Whiddon interviewed on Weekend Sunrise to talk about the campaign.

Whiddon would like to say thanks to everyone who participated in SignMyName, it was an honour be named a finalist in the Australian Tech Awards and we were up against two equally important advocacy and awareness campaigns. The awareness we raised, the media coverage of our efforts and public participation (including many of our residents, volunteers and staff) is what enabled us to get this far in the award process, thank you all for being part of this!

Jackie O pledging to support the Sign My Name Campaign on Sunrise.

 

Read more about the campaign:

Aussie celebs sign on to raise awareness of cognitive decline 

Campaign a great sign for the future

Highlighting mental wellbeing of older Aussies