As the oldest in a family of four with a mother who is a nurse, care has always been part of his life. Choosing to study nursing at a higher professional level was a logical step then – the choice to work with people with dementia was not. During a compulsory internship he was introduced to dementia care and has not managed to let go of it ever since.
Right now, he contributes to dementia care in his own and modern way, by not only observing and studying people with dementia, but by permanently living with them in a nursing home. He focuses on having fun and maintaining personal contact with all his roommates to create moments of happiness and thereby improve their quality of life.
His Mission
He is a young humanitarian activist, bestselling author and co-founder and ambassador of the Article 25 Foundation, which has gained many loyal followers online and offline. Toebes often appears in the media and is seen as an inspiring face of dementia care. For his work and initiatives Toebes has won various awards and from his mission he want to make dementia care worldwide more humane. To that end, he and his good friend and filmmaker Jonathan de Jong have made the independent film, Human Forever, which will be the opening film at the G20 conference around dementia in The Hague on 2 October 2023.
Jonathan de Jong is a multiple award-winning documentary filmmaker and bestselling author based in the Netherlands.
His work is characterised by social stories that always touch, whether it’s about the personal struggles of world-famous people or subjects that affect everyone, such as dementia or mental health problems. He knows better than anyone how to package these issues so that you never look at them the same way again.
In his last years, he has made several documentaries about dementia, in which he manages to address an ‘older’ problem in a young and refreshing way. This is also the reason why he, together with ‘icon’ from the world of care, Teun Toebes, were allowed to make the opening film for the G20 Health Summit, Human Forever. They also jointly wrote the international bestseller ‘The Housemates’ about dementia, which has been published in 13 countries around the world. They are currently busy working on the promising sequel: A World to Win, which will be published in late 2023.