The Dementia-Capable Communities Project, assembled in 2021, brought together a wide range of community stakeholders at all scales in urban, suburban, and rural neighbourhoods in Waterloo, Ontario. The team is a collaboration of researchers, persons living with dementia, care partners, community service providers and other community members. We used a participatory approach in this project, involving persons living with dementia, care partners and community members involved in every level of the project.

Together we created free tools for all community members + municipalities - Learning Modules, an Action Plan (complete with detailed process tips), Journey Maps (that were also featured as adverts on public transit), Video with co-researcher Kathleen Vanderlinden, who is living with dementia. You can check everything out at dementiawellness.com/dementia-capable-communities/.

As part of this project, we also published a scoping review on approaches to dementia-inclusive communities in the journal Dementia. More articles to come!

Principal Investigators: Dr. Samantha Biglieri (TMU), Dr. Laura Middleton (University of Waterloo)

Funded By: New Frontiers in Research Fund - Exploration Grant