Your Account
Upcoming Events
Safeguarding Seniors: Recognizing & Preventing Financial Fraud
Understanding MAiD: A Compassionate Guide to Eligibility, Access and Legal Considerations
Join Us for an Evening with the Alzheimer Society: Your Questions Answered
Past Live Meetings
Social Inclusion and Dementia Supportive Communities
Supporting 2SLGBTQI+ Seniors Living with Dementia
Navigating Homecare and Alberta’s Updated Continuing Care Act
A Comprehensive Look at the Relationship Between Alcohol and Prescription Medication Misuse and Dementia
Optimizing Supportive End-of-Life Care for Frail Older Adults Living with Dementia in Long-Term-Care
Rest Easy: Sleeping, remembering, and aging well
Indigenous Ways of Knowing about Dementia - Some lessons from the Gitxsan Perspective
Music and Wellness: how to use music effectively in caregiving and in self-care
Alzheimer's Disease is a life-limiting illness with a terminal phase
Emergency Preparedness with the Hon. Lisa Raitt
Creating Safer Spaces: Gender Diversity in Long-Term Care Homes
Home Care & the Continuing Care System: How Does it Work?
Education
End-of-Life Stage
Dementia is a life-limiting illness. How and when dying will come is a personal experience for everyone.
Late Stage
It is a natural human reaction to hope when facing challenges. When living with a progressive illness, what we hope for changes over time. Hope always remains present.
Middle Stage
Dementia may be something you have lived with for a while or a shorter time. As dementia progresses, the abilities of the person living with dementia change too. They are working hard to keep up with daily life and need an increasing amount of support to make sense of the world around them. As dementia progresses, roles and responsibilities change for everyone involved. All the changes bring new emotions and grief.
Early Stage
In the early stage, subtle changes in one’s abilities are noticeable to people living with dementia and/or to the people close to them. Everyone in the circle is re-arranging roles and responsibilities, consciously or not.
Community Dementia Ambassadors
Community Dementia Ambassadors
La trousse du proche aidant - En établissement de soins de longue durée
Il s’agit d’un document conçu pour vous aider à vous préparer, comme proche aidant, en vue des changements ou des événements éventuels, afin de pouvoir prendre soin d’un membre de votre entourage vivant avec la maladie d’Alzheimer ou une maladie apparentée. « En établissement de soins de longue durée » renvoie à tous les milieux de vie destinés à des personnes âgées en perte d’autonomie, lesquels incluent des services et des soins.
Minds in Motion Volunteer Training
Minds in Motion Volunteer Training
Resources
What is the difference between Alzheimer’s disease and Dementia?
The word dementia is an umbrella term that refers to many different diseases. Different physical changes to the brain cause various types of dementia. Some dementias are reversible, meaning that they can be treated and cured, while others are irreversible, meaning that there is no cure yet.
Dementia is not a specific disease. Many diseases can cause dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia (due to strokes), Lewy Body dementia (LBD), head trauma, frontotemporal dementia (FTD), Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease. These conditions can have similar and overlapping symptoms.
Dementia is an overall term for a set of symptoms that are caused by disorders affecting the brain. Symptoms may include memory loss and difficulties with thinking, problem-solving or language, severe enough to reduce a person's ability to perform everyday activities. A person with dementia may also experience changes in mood or behaviour.
My grandmother had Alzheimer's disease. Will I develop it as well?
There are two types of Alzheimer's disease.
Familial Autosomal Dominant (FAD) Alzheimer’s disease accounts for less than 5% of all cases of Alzheimer’s disease and is linked to genetics. For FAD to occur, the disease must be evident across multiple generations of a single family.
Sporadic Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of Alzheimer's disease, and it does not have a specific family link. People with this type may or may not have a family history of the disease.
What are some quick facts on dementia in Canada?
Dementia Numbers in Canada
By 2030, researchers project that nearly 1 million people in Canada will be living with dementia. And they forecast that more than 1.7 million people in Canada will have dementia by 2050.
- As of January 1, 2024, we estimate that 733,040 people in Canada are living with dementia.
- Every day, more than 350 people in Canada develop dementia. This is more than 15 every hour.
- By 2030, nearly 1 million people in Canada could live with dementia.
- This would be 187,000 new cases a year, 512 a day and 21 an hour, by 2030. Canada could have a 51% increase in the number of new dementia cases a year (Compared to 2020).
- By 2030, the number of people in Canada living with dementia could increase 65% compared to 2020. (From 597,300 to 990,600.)
- 20,000+ Canadians will develop dementia every month in the 2040s.
- By 2050, more than 1.7 million people in Canada could have dementia.
- This would mean, by 2050, 685 people will be diagnosed each day with dementia in Canada, or 29 every hour.
- 6.3 million people in Canada will develop, live with and/or ultimately die with dementia between 2020 and 2050.
Caregiving and Dementia in Canada
- Care partners of older adults with dementia provide 26 hours of care a week, on average. This compares to 17 hours a week for older adults with other health issues. (Source: Canadian Institute for Health Information)
- Every year, family and friends provide more than 470 million hours of care to people living with dementia. This is equivalent to 235,000 full-time jobs.
- Dementia care provided by family and friends in 2022 would equal more than $7.3 billion dollars in Canada alone.
- By 2050, Canada will have more than 1 million care partners for people living with dementia. The care they provide will equal more than 1.4 billion hours per year, or 690,000 full-time jobs.
- The number of care partners would nearly triple (188% increase) over 30 years (2020 to 2050).
- 45% of care partners for seniors living with dementia show symptoms of distress. The distress rate for care partners of seniors with other health conditions is almost half that (26%). (Source: Canadian Institute for Health Information)
The recommendations section of The Many Faces of Dementia in Canada report contains further recommendations for Alzheimer societies, governments, healthcare systems, and researchers.
