To allow dementia-friendly education to take root on school campuses, the Sustainable Healthcare Center at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) teamed up with the Pingtung County Department of Health on August 11 (2026) to host the “Pingtung County Dementia-Friendly Picture Book Advocacy Training Workshop” at the university’s Humanities Lecture Hall. Bringing together partners from public health centers across 33 townships and districts in Pingtung County alongside members of the education sector, this cross-disciplinary collaboration was designed to promote dementia-friendly campus advocacy throughout Pingtung.
The workshop utilized Chinese-English bilingual teaching picture books, So That’s How It Is and So That’s How It Is 2, which were co-authored by the Pingtung County Department of Health, dementia medical expert Dr. Chi-Fa Hung (Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital), illustrator Tzu-Ting Hung (founder of “the Migrant Woman’s Adventure”, and the center’s project team.
During the first half of the event, Professor Shan-Ru Chao from the Sustainable Healthcare Center provided an in-depth explanation of the creative concepts and key highlights of the two dementia-themed picture books. Professor Chao emphasized that the core of the advocacy focuses on guiding students through the process of listening to the story. Using the two books, students progressively built “observational sensitivity” through So That’s How It Is, which teaches them to actively observe the daily routines and subtle changes of elderly people. So That’s How It Is 2 allowed the students to build a further understanding of “the diagnosis and medical attributes of dementia,” teaching them how to assist elders in seeking medical care and how to live and interact harmoniously with dementia patients. Afterward, Dr. Chi-Fa Hung from Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital conducted teaching session in which he demonstrated campus advocacy techniques. Drawing on his rich clinical and advocacy experience, he meticulously analyzed the medical aspects of the picture books and explained how to connect and utilize the two books during advocacy sessions. In order to ensure that dementia health education takes deep root on campuses, Dr. Hung pointed out that advocacy instructors must guide students step-by-step through the process of learning simple to advanced concepts—such as the ten warning signs and diagnosis of dementia.
To enable seed instructors to immediately apply their what they had learned, the second half of the workshop featured a “group simulation and drill” session. The seed instructors mastered three core principles for making students “comprehend, remember, and willingly interact.” Members of each group enthusiastically participated and displayed great creativity, filling the venue with exceptional demonstrations of advocacy and lively discussions. The workshop not only equipped the seed instructors with the core concepts of picture book creation and storytelling techniques but also, through joyful group drills and professional feedback from Dr. Hung, allowed complex medical concepts to become more approachable and relatable.
As the training workshop came to a successful close, the Pingtung County Department of Health announced that with “International Dementia Month” coming up in September, various public health centers would be launching dementia-friendly campus advocacy campaigns. They expressed hope that the seed instructors would translate the knowledge and advocacy skills acquired from the workshop into practical actions, allowing dementia-friendly seeds to sprout and blossom across every campus in Pingtung.
