PPaDD - Ping Pong against Degenerative Diseases

Today, more than 1.2 million people in Europe have Parkinson's disease and 10.5 million also suffer from Dementia. They are not supported homogeneously across the European Union. Numerous initiatives in sport helped in the fight against these diseases. Table tennis allows decreasing cognitive decline. PPaDD (Ping Pong against Degenerative Diseases) is dedicated to the inclusion of people suffering from Dementia or Parkinson's disease through table tennis practice. It intends to achieve this by: • Laying the foundations for a strong transnational collaboration on common sports challenges • Strengthening sport clubs’ intake skills The French and Danish table tennis federations, supported by representatives for Alzheimer and Parkinson, joined their resources to carry out, in 2022-2024: • An analysis of best practices within each federation to accompany practitioners suffering from Dementia and Parkinson • A guide of best practices to help sport clubs effectively support people with diseases mentioned above • MOOCS (Massive Open Online Courses) to share the findings of the guide • An experimentation of the guide in sport clubs in both countries • A review of the experimentation and update of the guide • Events (final event during Olympic Games of 2024 to share results with a larger circle of sport actors) Thus, it will result in the creation and the provision of a guide of best practices, providing a detailed methodology to create Dementia and Parkinson’s units in sport clubs, and training courses. PPaDD directly targets 16 sports clubs and their practitioners, and sport clubs interested in this approach. It indirectly targets all clubs from both federations, as well as all people affected by these diseases in France and Denmark. It will reach out to more sport actors from other countries during international events. By 2024, the partners estimate that PPaDD will contribute to improving the quality of life of 1 million people with Dementia or Parkinson's.