Dementia caregiving as a public health priority: how iGeriCare.ca can help? The Public Health Agency of Canada's National Dementia Strategy identifies that caregivers face significant physical, mental, and financial impacts as a result of caring for a person living with dementia. Caregivers experience high levels of stress and are at a higher risk of injury and depression. As an essential part of the care team, supports must be provided to improve the quality of life for both the person living with dementia and the caregiver as well. The need for evidence-based caregiver education has been identified by national and provincial dementia strategies and the Health Quality Ontario Standard for dementia. iGeriCare was developed by experts in geriatrics, mental health, and e-learning at McMaster University to provide evidence-based dementia education for informal family caregivers of persons living with dementia. The free, open-access web-based program allows caregivers to access resources from their own homes, at their own pace with the ability to easily share the experience with other family members and caregivers. iGeriCare's features include ten multi-media lessons, curated resources, and is host to live, online events where viewers can interact directly with experts in dementia and geriatrics. Since July 2018, over 90,000 visitors have come to the site to experience the lessons, live events, and explore the resources. Join Drs. Anthony Levinson and Richard Sztramko as they discuss why dementia, caregiver wellness, and brain health are important public health issues. Learn about the evidence regarding the effectiveness of web-based caregiver education. Explore iGeriCare's features and hear about how the program was designed, developed, and implemented and the results of the qualitative research performed to date. Recorded on December 12, 2019.

1. Dementia caregiving as a public health
priority: how iGeriCare.ca can help?
Presenters:
Dr. Anthony J. Levinson, Neuropsychiatrist, Associate Professor,
Director of Division of e-Learning Innovation, McMaster University
Dr. Richard Sztramko, Geriatrician, Assistant Professor, McMaster
University
Thursday, December 12, 2019
2:00 – 4:30 PM EST
Funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada | Hosted by McMaster University
Production of this presentation has been made possible through a financial contribution from the Public Health Agency of Canada. The views
expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Public Health Agency of Canada.

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E. >10
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Poll Question #3

8. Registry of Methods and Tools
Online Learning
Opportunities
WorkshopsMultimedia
Public Health+
Networking and
Outreach
NCCMT Products and Services
8

9. Presenters
9
Dr. Anthony J. Levinson
Associate Professor and Director of the
Division of e-Learning Innovation
Michael G. DeGroote School of
at McMaster University
Dr. Richard Sztramko
Geriatrician
Assistant Professor, McMaster

12. Home Care
Nurse

13. Alzheimer Society
• Groups for carers
• But what about those that
cannot attend in-person?

14. Overview/Outline/Objectives
• Dementia as a public health issue
• Caregivers as a public health issue
• iGeriCare as a potential caregiver education solution

15. About us

16. Polling Questions 1 and 2

17. Dementia and caregivers in
the public health landscape

21. 5 underlying
pillars
Collaboration
Research and innovation
Surveillance and data
Information resources
Skilled workforce

23. 4 Areas of Focus
1. Advance research to identify and assess modifiable risk
and protective factors
2. Build the evidence base to inform and promote the
adoption of effective interventions
3. Expand awareness of modifiable risk and protective
factors and effective interventions
4. Support measures that increase the contribution of
social and built environments to healthy living and
adoption of healthy living behaviours

25. 5 Areas of Focus
• Eliminate stigma
• Promote and enable early diagnosis
• Address the importance of access to quality care
• Build the capacity of care providers
• Improve support for family/friend caregivers
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

28. Higher Risk
and Barriers
• Indigenous peoples
• Intellectual disabilities
• Multiple health issues
• Older adults
• Women
• Ethnic and cultural
minority communities
• LGBTQ2
• Linguistic minorities
• Rural and remote
communities
• Young onset dementia

29. Polling Question 3

30. Polling Question 4

41. Ottawa Public
Health
Brain health section

42. Polling Question 5

50. Lesson
Topics
• What is dementia?
• What is MCI?
• How to promote brain health
• The different types of
dementia
• How is dementia treated
• Safety and dementia?
• Caring for the patient with
dementia at home
• Apathy, depression, and
anxiety in dementia
• Managing behavioural
issues in dementia
• Caregiver wellness

52. Other formats
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

54. Metrics
Over 90,000 visitors, with many returning
visitors
Over 126,500 sessions
Live videos watched over 1,600 times
User satisfaction based on Net Promoter
Scale scores > 50 or ‘excellent’

55. Qualitative
research
Themed and organized around CFIR
Flexible, meeting caregiver needs,
compatible with workflows
Complements traditional
educational methods
Understand current caregiver education approaches, as
well as impressions of iGeriCare and barriers and
facilitators to implementation
Semi-structured interviews with 12 key stakeholders

58. Next steps
Additional research
Different target audiences

60. Heterogeneity of caregivers and interventions
Adult-child informal
carers vs. spouses;
some ‘dyadic’
Level of comfort
with technology at
baseline; level of
education or
‘mastery’ at
baseline
Multi-component
interventions
Group vs. individual;
home-based vs. not-
home-based
Various types of
technology-based
interventions
Multicomponent
Education/skill-based
interventions
More
support/counselling/psych
ological/therapeutic (e.g.
CBT or Behavioural
Activation)
Communication
technologies (phone, text,
video conference)
Physical activity-based
interventions
Various outcome
measures; various
methodological
quality

61. Education for Caregivers of People Living with
Dementia
Knowledge and Skills
• Cognitive re-appraisal
• Specific skills
• Available supports and
resources
• Topic-based knowledge
• About the condition
• Safety issues
• Etc.
Coping Skills
• Accepting help
• Resiliency
• Other therapeutic
• CBT
• Mindfulness
• Behavioural activation

62. Conclusion

64. Home Care
Nurse

65. Alzheimer Society
• Groups for carers
• But what about those that
cannot attend in-person?

66. Public Health
• Awareness
• Prevention
• High risk populations
• Barriers
• Costs

68. Alignment
with Public
Health
Strategy
Raise awareness and understanding of
dementia across Canada
Reduce stigma
Improve dementia-inclusive communities
Help with primary and secondary
prevention, delayed onset
Healthy living

69. For more…
iGeriCare.ca
PHAC - Together we Aspire
Health Evidence
Health Quality Ontario dementia
standard

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Funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada | Hosted by McMaster University
Production of this presentation has been made possible through a financial contribution from the Public Health Agency of Canada. The
views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Public Health Agency of Canada.