New dedicated Task Force will spearhead much-needed progress in dementia care coordination in Ontario

The recently announced Ontario Dementia Task Force, led by the Alzheimer Society of Ontario and The Brainwell Institute, has the potential to make a big impact on dementia care coordination in the province—and the lives of more than 300,000 older Ontarians living with dementia. As Ontario’s catalyst for aging and brain health innovation, CABHI enthusiastically welcomes this promising new initiative, which will bolster progress made under the Improving Dementia Care in Ontario Act.  

Collaboration is key in affecting real-world impact for Ontario’s newly super-aged population. It’s increasingly important that healthcare, community care organizations, researchers, innovators, and policymakers coordinate efforts, complementing and amplifying each other’s incredible work across the province to improve quality of life and health outcomes for older persons and caregivers. The Task Force is grounding its work in collaboration, engaging a range of stakeholders—including people with lived experience—to co-design its recommendations. 

The following excerpt from the media release highlights the vital role key shareholders will play in the Task Force’s objectives: 

With funding from the Weston Family Foundation, the Task Force is engaging key shareholders, including policymakers, people with lived experience of dementia, health services, and community organizations. They will work to co-design a functional and scalable set of recommendations to better integrate and coordinate dementia care services in the province. This collaborative approach will map gaps in coordination; analyze learnings from other major coordination models for conditions such as cancer, stroke and diabetes; assess system readiness and co-develop a proposed provincial infrastructure model for dementia to offer better integrated access to programs and treatments for people living with dementia and their care partners. 

CABHI is currently working with the Brainwell Institute on its Provincial Pathfinder Program in New Brunswick—a structured, scalable initiative designed to create dementia care pathways and bridge the gap between innovation and care delivery—leveraging regional learnings across the country to build a stronger, more coordinated care framework. CABHI looks forward to continuing and deepening our ongoing work with these and other innovation ecosystem partners that are working alongside each other to enable older persons living with dementia to live with purpose, fulfilment, and dignity.