Physicians and researchers who specialize in dementia care and prevention say a new $30-million donation to seven Toronto hospitals and organizations will significantly bolster their programming.
And they say the money is coming at a crucial time — as the health-care system faces a rapidly aging population and growing needs.
The Slaight Family Foundation, a charity founded by media magnate Allan Straight, announced the large gift Tuesday.
Samir Sinha, director of health policy research at the National Institute on Ageing at Toronto Metropolitan University, says the number of Canadians with dementia is increasing.
He points to a 2022 study by the Alzheimer’s Society of Canada that estimates close to 1.7 million people will have dementia by 2050, believed to represent 3.6 per cent of the population. As of 2020, about 600,000 people in Canada had dementia, or about 1.6 per cent of the population.
That’s why this donation will be “transformative”, he said.
“The greatest risk factor for dementia is just age. The older you get, the higher the risk you’ll be living with dementia…so just by nature of our population aging, we’re going to see many more Canadians living with dementia,” he said.
According to the Alzheimer’s society, dementia is an overall term for the symptoms caused by brain disorders that can cause cognitive failures around thinking and memory. Alzheimer’s disease refers to a specific type of dementia that primarily impacts memory.
Some form of memory loss is normal for people over age 65. But to have your memory deteriorate to the point where you cannot take care of yourself, is abnormal, according to the society.
“This gift is really going to help people prevent dementia, but it’s also going to make sure that we can better support better ways of delivering care and conducting the research we need,” said Sinha.
The money will be doled out to seven organizations, including:
Alzheimer Society of Canada: $3 million
Baycrest: $9.5 million
Belmont House: $700,000
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH): $6.5 million
Egale Canada: $3 million
National Institute on Ageing at TMU: $3 million
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre: $4.4 million
Sinha helped the foundation learn more about which organizations to give the money to. He says not only will it go toward treatment, it will also help with public education and awareness of how to recognize signs of dementia and assess brain health.
Terry Smith, the program director at the Slaight Foundation says the organization decided to make the donation because dementia is an illness that many people have experience with in their families.
“Quite frankly, there is not a lot of support for those living with dementia. It just is something we feel, if there’s something that can be done, then maybe the foundation can provide some support,” she said.
The institutions in Toronto are world-class and deserve to have more resources, she said.
Ottawa predicts ‘significant’ impact on system
Sinha says preventing dementia is a priority for the organizations using the funding. Too many people believe that dementia is a normal part of aging, when it’s not, he said.
“They don’t even know that there’s actually things they can do to prevent dementia from developing in the first place,” he said. Staying socially engaged, eating a well-balanced diet and getting consistent exercise can all help ward of the disease, he said.
Dr. Samir Sinha is the the director of geriatrics at Sinai Health, the University Health Network in Toronto and the director of the National Institute on Ageing. He says the $30-million gift will help with dementia prevention as well as treatment. (Provided by Sinai Health)
The strategy explains that while dementia is not an inevitable part of aging, age is an “important risk factor” for the illness. The growing aging population in the country will increase the number of people living with dementia as a result, it says.
The impact of the illness on the health-care system is “significant” as there is no cure. Health-care costs for people with dementia are about three times higher compared to those without it, the report says.
Neil Vasdev, the scientific director of the brain health imaging centre at CAMH, says he and his team have been developing ways to identify early signs of dementia through brain scans.
They’ve been examining a protein called tau and other enzymes to see if they can be early indicators of Alzheimer’s, said Vasdev.
The donation CAMH is receiving is “critical,” he said. “Especially for Canada to continue to have a major role and lead the way,” he said.
Vasdev said CAMH and other health-care organizations continuously apply for grants and government funding. But those can take years to come through — and this donation will be helpful immediately.
The federal government’s dementia strategy says it’s providing $50 million over five years to the Dementia Strategic Fund, which is run by the Public Health Agency of Canada, toward government initiatives to prevent and find treatments for dementia. Organizations focused on dementia have also been able to apply for a portion of the funding.
The funding began rolling out in 2019.
Continued investments needed: scientist
Allison Sekuler, president and chief scientist at the Centre for Aging and Brain Health Innovation at Baycrest Health Sciences, says the donation will allow for an immediate expansion of programming.
She said it will now be expanding its services into underserved communities in Toronto and across the country.
That will include connecting people to their free online brain health too along with hearing tests as hearing loss is associated with an increased risk for dementia, she said.
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and surrounding areas are pictured from a drone on 28-Sep, 2021. CAMH is one of seven organizations that are receiving a charity donation for dementia care. (Patrick Morrell/CBC)
The health-care system as it stands now, is not ready, she said.
CBC Toronto asked the Public Health Agency of Canada to respond to criticisms that they aren’t providing enough funding for dementia care. In a response, the agency pointed to investments outlined in its Canada’s dementia strategy on its website.
In a statement, Ontario’s Ministry of Health said its investment in the province’s dementia strategy will be $120 million over the next five years.
But institutions doing the work need more immediate funding, Sekuler said.
“If we don’t address these issues now, this is not sustainable,” she said. “It’s not just because of the billions of dollars Canada will be spending to address the problem directly and indirectly, but also because of the cost to human beings,” she said.
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
