Dementia program developed out of University of Waterloo gets $1M in federal funding

A new dementia program developed out of the University of Waterloo is receiving nearly $1 million in federal funding.

The Public Health Agency of Canada is providing Laura Middleton, a researcher in the department of kinesiology and health sciences, with $979,000 over four years for a project called Dementia Lifestyle Intervention for Getting Healthy Together (DELIGHT).

Middleton, who is also the Schlegel Research Chair in Dementia and Active Living, leads the project alongside Heather Keller and Carrie McAiney.

The program will see patients go through eight weeks of sessions focused on exercise and how to live well with dementia.

“Often people leave with a feeling of grief and loss,” said Middleton, referring to how people respond to a diagnosis. “‘I was just planning for the end,’” she said, pointing to what patients often say.

A big part of the program will be focused on simple exercises, like squats, which mimic getting up and down from a chair.

“Because we know physical health can help promote brain health,” Middleton said.

The program, and funding for it, comes at a crucial time. Middleton and the government hope to get ahead of new groundbreaking predictions released by the Alzheimer Society of Canada. The organization expects a 187 per cent jump in dementia diagnoses by 2050.

“And that’s really driven by just more people living to ages when dementia is common,” Middleton said. “Baby boomers are going from younger adults to reaching 70s, 80s, 90s, and realistically the prevalence of dementia goes up with that.”

Middleton says about 600,000 people are living with dementia in Canada right now. That number is expected to increase dramatically even in the next five years, let alone in the next 20 years.

Part of the funding will help adapt the program for rural areas and diverse communities.

“We’re also adapting for the Mandarin and Cantonese-speaking communities as well,” said Middleton.

With no miracle drug on the horizon or cure for dementia, the focus for now is helping patients live well and comfortably with the disease.

To learn more about the program and to find out how to be a part of it, you can visit the DELIGHT website.