U of S Research Team Awarded $1.25 M to Study Dementia Care for Rural Seniors
Posted October 06, 2003
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - October 6, 2003 2003-10-03- OTHER
U of S Research Team Awarded $1.25 M to Study Dementia Care for Rural
Seniors
Today a University of Saskatchewan research team was awarded $1.25 million
over five years from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and
partners to study new approaches for providing services to rural
Saskatchewan seniors who have Alzheimer's disease or other dementia.
The announcement was made in Ottawa by federal Health Minister Anne
McLellan.
The team will design and evaluate a special new clinic that will use
videoconferencing and other innovations to improve access to diagnostic and
treatment services for seniors in rural and remote areas. The team will also
evaluate caregiver training in rural home care and nursing homes, and
examine the use of existing dementia services in rural and remote areas.
"At present, we know very little about dementia in northern Saskatchewan,"
she said. "There are few medical referrals for dementia-related care and
few long-term care facilities available in remote regions of the province,"
said team leader Debra Morgan.
The CIHR will contribute a total of $750,000 from the Institute of Aging,
the Rural and Northern Health Research Initiative, and the Institute of
Health Services and Policy Research. Other funding comes from the U of S
($295,000), the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation ($120,000), and the
Alzheimer Society of Saskatchewan ($85,000).
"This multi-disciplinary research will evaluate new dementia care and
training strategies that could greatly benefit individuals with dementia and
their caregivers in rural and remote Saskatchewan communities," said Steven
Franklin, U of S Vice-President of Research. "At present, rural seniors have
to make numerous trips to various health service providers which can be
costly, time-consuming and stressful. This research could lead to one-stop
shopping for dementia assessment and treatment services."
"I am proud CIHR is able to support projects that reflect such a
collaborative approach to health research, an approach that helps us to
examine the pressing health questions from a variety of angles," said CIHR
president Alan Bernstein. "By partnering with organizations in the voluntary
sector, we can share information and hear directly from patients, helping us
ensure that the research we fund reflects the needs of Canadians."
Morgan, associate professor at the U of S Institute of Agricultural Rural
and Environmental Health (I.ARE.H), says dementia rates are expected to
double in the next 30 years as baby boomers age. Saskatchewan has the
highest proportion of seniors in Canada -- 15 per cent. Many of these
seniors live in small towns and villages far from specialized care
providers, which can make accessing these services costly and
time-consuming.
To diagnose and treat dementia more quickly and efficiently, the team will
set up a memory clinic in Saskatoon that will provide a one-day,
multidisciplinary assessment for seniors in rural and remote communities.
The assessment will include a physical and neuropsychological evaluation,
followed by a meeting to discuss diagnosis and treatment.
Videoconferencing will be used before and after the clinic visit to conduct
pre-screening and follow-up. The researchers will then evaluate the
usefulness of this approach. The videoconferencing will involve up to 14
rural communities that are more than 100 kilometers from a major centre.
The project will assess the training needs of nursing aides working in rural
and remote areas of the province and evaluate an existing dementia care
training program that is currently available by correspondence. The team
will also develop a culturally sensitive method of assessing memory problems
in Aboriginal seniors.
Other team members are Norma Stewart (nursing), Margaret Crossley
(psychology), Carl D'Arcy (applied research), Jay Biem (I.ARE.H.), Andrew
Kirk (neurology) and Dorothy Forbes (nursing). Graduate students in
nursing, medicine and psychology will also be involved.
The grant is part of more than $30 million awarded to 23 health research
projects across Canada through the CIHR New Emerging Team (NET) grant
program, which encourages the creation of collaborative, multi-disciplinary
teams that explore pressing health research questions from a broad range of
perspectives.
"By investing in research, the Government of Canada is helping to foster a
vibrant Canadian research community that is attracting and keeping the best
and the brightest in Canada," said Health Minister Anne McLellan. "The
Canadian research community will help us develop a more responsive Canadian
healthcare system and translate research into improved health for
Canadians."
"This team is studying a critical, but relatively unexplored, health service
issue," said June Bold, CEO of the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation.
"We are pleased to be a funding partner in this leading-edge research and
look forward to results that will help improve dementia care for rural
seniors in Saskatchewan and other parts of Canada."
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For more information, contact:
Professor Debra Morgan
Institute of Agricultural Rural and Environmental Health
(306) 966-7905
Kathryn Warden
U of S Research Communications
(306) 966-2506
kathryn.warden@usask.ca
www.usask.ca/research
Janet Weichel McKenzie
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
(613) 941-4563
