'Dreadful' results: Report says provinces unprepared to care for people with dementia

A new report by a national seniors’ advocacy organization suggests the country is falling behind in dementia care, and gives the Maritime provinces a failing grade.

“In 2019, Canada created a federal policy, a strategy for dementia,” says the CEO of CanAge, Laura Tamblyn Watts.

“What this report wanted to see is since then, how have we done, according to key indicators, and specifically how have each of the provinces and territories have done.”

“I have to say, the results are dreadful,” adds Tamblyn Watts. 

Tamblyn Watts says the “Dementia in Canada Cross-Country Report 2022” shows a lack of clear provincial dementia strategies and the necessary funding to match.

“There's really not been any of the major targeted promises moved forward on,” she says.

In the Maritimes, Prince Edward Island is the lone province with any formal dementia strategy, although Tamblyn Watts says it’s “expired.”

According to the report, New Brunswick and P.E.I. fared the worst for the number of specialists available for patients, such as neurologists and psychiatrists.

“About one in two physicians in New Brunswick say they feel confident in diagnosing people with dementia,” says Tamblyn Watts.

However, Tamblyn Watts adds “it seems unlikely because there are almost no more resources from the government.”

The CanAge analysis also looked at risk factors for dementia such as heavy drinking, obesity, smoking, and physical activity, and found poor results in the Maritimes.

“This is one of the biggest health and social crisis' that we have and we need to take it seriously, or we're going to be in a broken state,” warns Tamblyn Watts.

Paired with the aging population in the Maritimes, the study’s findings are proof of the work still ahead, according to the head of Alzheimer Society of Nova Scotia.

“I would say pick something and we are falling short on it,” says John Britton. “The intention is there, the fact is that we have one of the oldest populations in the country.”

“We’re already right in that now, so we can start to expect to see an 87 per cent increase in dementia incidence over the next 20 to 30 years.”

Britton says provinces need to make long-term care a priority and think of dementia in new ways.

“We need to be talking about it at a community level, we need to be talking about it at a health-care level and a systems level. We all have a brain in our head, this affects all of us,” he says. “That’s the real shift for us. We need to start thinking about dementia differently.”

“It is entirely possible to live very well and very engaged in your community, especially in those earlier stages,” adds Britton. “The problem we are having with our approach to dementia is, ‘you have it now, and this is the prescribed journey that you are on,’ and it is so different for every single person.”

It’s a journey Penny MacAuley has become familiar with, after her husband, Grant Kennedy, was diagnosed with dementia in 2020.

“For the caregiver, I think one of the hardest things is the isolation,” she says.

The diagnosis changed their once independent lives dramatically, with Penny becoming a full-time caregiver for her 87-year-old husband.

“When he comes home this afternoon after being at a day program, he will sit here and that's all that will matter to him, which is a huge new responsibility for me,” she says.

According to CanAge, more than 75 per cent of persons with dementia are still living at home.

“And I’m terrified about what would happen if I had to put him into a home,” says MacAuley.

She’s had difficulty finding qualified caregiving assistance in their home, and considers herself to receive some funding to send her husband to a dementia day program several days a week.

MacAuley would like more dementia-focused training for care workers and specific resources in the community to help people like her and her husband.

“I would like to see more input from the caregivers,” she adds. “[It’s a] huge adjustment, struggling to find positive ways to deal with [it].”