As the population continues to age, there are increasing challenges to ensuring that the best care and support can be provided so as to allow seniors to live longer and healthier. Tied to this challenge is the rise in the number of seniors with dementia. The World Health Organization (WHO) notes there are approximately 47.5 million people worldwide who currently have dementia, and that 7.7 million new cases are diagnosed every year. The increase in the number of older adults, and the concurrent increase in dementia amongst seniors, calls for health care organizations and professionals to come together to look at new and innovative ways to provide better long-term outcomes for these patients and their families.
On Feb. 21-24, 2017 the Canadian Centre for Aging & Brain Health Innovation (CC-ABHI) is hosting a design sprint at Centennial College, which will bring together system partners to address the issue of aging at home with dementia. CC-ABHI will be working in partnership with Baycrest Health Sciences, Saint Elizabeth Health Care, the Ontario Telemedicine Network and Centennial College/WIMTACH over the course of this 2.5 day sprint.
“There is an increased urgency to challenge the long held beliefs that govern the way people think about and do business in our health system in order to provoke a different way of exploring solutions,” says Bianca Stern, Executive Director, Health Innovations, at CC-ABHI.
Workshop attendees represent all levels of system collaborators, including: seniors, caregivers, community advocates, healthcare organizations, and community service organizations amongst others. The event brings together key system partners to push for a more disruptive/ transformative system solution that will:
- Enable people with dementia, who are living in the community, to more effectively manage their day-to-day living needs (physical, psychosocial, emotional, and cognitive, etc.)
- Facilitate access to resources to support informal and formal care-givers who are providing care to older adults experiencing dementia and aging at home
- Reduce the need for unnecessary emergency care services in older adults living in the community through the implementation of effective prevention strategies;
- Raise public awareness to promote a societal approach to living with and amongst older adults who are experiencing dementia.
“We recognize that addressing these challenges and realizing the opportunities requires a concerted, integrated, multi-disciplinary and cross-sector effort. This project will engage the expertise and entrepreneurial spirit of our large system partners, and invites their collaboration for a system wide solution,” adds Stern.
CC-ABHI and the other event sponsors hope that the outcomes of the design sprint will result in a system partner solution that can be brought forward for future consideration as a CC-ABHI program candidate.
More information will be available during the event on the CC-ABHI Twitter account and following the event on the CC-ABHI website.
View the White Paper entitled It takes a Village – Living with Dementia: An Environmental Scan of Current Practices.
