Access to Dementia Care in Canada

 Increasing access to dementia care

•    Dementia Assessment Units assess the needs of individuals with home care support and those living in publicly funded Special Care Homes to stabilize individuals and develop a personalized care plan (Saskatchewan Health Authority).

•    Manitoba’s My Health Teams plan and deliver coordinated, comprehensive primary care focused on geographic areas or specific communities to ensure that people living  with  dementia  and  their families have access to care built around their health needs.

•     The summer school at Glendon College in Ontario brings together health stakeholders working in Francophone university and community sectors to improve day-to-day practices and share best practices in cognitive health and dementia.

•    The Home Dementia Care Program in Newfoundland and Labrador helps people with moderate to advanced dementia live well at home by increasing access to medical care.

•    Across Ontario, Multispecialty Interprofessional Team (MINT) Memory Clinics provide dementia care in primary care settings within communities. In addition to primary care memory clinics, the central-eastern region has developed the Geriatric Assessment and Intervention Network (GAIN), a  coordinated network of  interprofessional teams who support high-risk seniors and their families  with comprehensive, specialized assessments and targeted interventions in their own homes.

Person-centred care

•    Upon admission to a long-term care home in Yukon, the Continuing Care Therapy Services program offers individualized assessments by an occupational therapist, physiotherapist, recreation therapist and/or speech-language pathologist.

•    In the Northwest Territories, the Supportive Pathways model of care uses a person-centred approach that fosters respectful, compassionate dementia care and trains care providers in delivering care that is responsive to individuals in a home-like supportive environment.

•    Co-designing Dementia Care in New Brunswick: Building the Future Together aims to improve the knowledge of primary care providers around diagnosis and delivery of dementia care, as well as awareness of services among seniors at-risk for dementia and care partners (UNB Saint John and Horizon Health Network).

Behavioural symptoms

•    Behavioural Supports Ontario provides comprehensive behavioural assessments and person-centred support plans focused on responsive  behaviours/personal expressions (e.g., repetitive questions, apathy, pacing, screaming, grabbing) associated with dementia and other neurological conditions.

•    In Montreal, a specialized interprofessional team has been set up to assist in complex situations involving people living with Alzheimer’s disease and other neurocognitive conditions to reduce problematic behaviours and find strategies to improve the quality of life of those living with these conditions and of caregivers (Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal).

•    The Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD) Algorithm is available to all care providers in British Columbia—it is an electronic interactive tool that supports interdisciplinary, evidence-based and  person-centred clinical assessment and  care decisions with a  specific focus  on non-pharmacological interventions and the appropriate use of antipsychotic drugs in long-term care settings.

•    The Appropriate Use of Antipsychotics approach, used in more than 300 long-term care homes across Canada engages people living with dementia, families and staff to understand underlying causes of behaviours and consider safely reducing or discontinuing medication (Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement).

Skills, training, and tools for care providers

•    Alberta’s Health Care Aide (HCA) curriculum, updated in 2019, describes required skills, knowledge, behaviours and attitudes to help HCAs better understand and  support the needs of people living with dementia (Alberta Health).

•    The Dementia Care Pilot Project is evaluating an online dementia education program and screening tools for primary care providers to use in family practice (Nova Scotia).