A University of British Columbia-Okanagan research team, partnering with the BC Centre for Palliative Care (BCCPC), has kicked off an exciting nationwide project bringing together three important social health movements—compassionate communities, dementia-friendly communities, and volunteer navigation (Nav-CARE) –to reduce stigma, raise awareness, and offer empowering supports for people living with dementia to age in place.
With a contribution from Health Canada and led by Dr. Barb Pesut from UBC-O, the team is collaborating with six Canadian organizations to envision, implement, and evaluate compassionate, dementia-inclusive initiatives. Supported by expertise from the BCCPC and the Building Capacity (in dementia) Project based out of UBC-Vancouver, the team has developed a customized toolkit for groups developing these compassionate dementia-inclusive community initiatives. It includes a practical set of steps to follow as well as an exploration of key issues to consider when building relationships, convening conversations, implementing programs, and aiming to sustain the initiatives long term.
To spread the word, partner organizations will create inter-organizational leadership teams who will in turn work with advisory boards of key stakeholders, including people with lived experience – people living with dementia and their care partners. These leadership teams will implement interventions tailored to their community, and evaluate the results. To ensure the success of the dementia-inclusive community interventions, the participating organizations will provide volunteers with training in the internationally acclaimed Nav-CARE (Navigation, Connecting, Advocating, Resourcing, Engaging).
