Grant: Op. Grant: Mechanisms in Brain Aging and Dementia - Indigenous Health Research

We co-created a support group with Indigenous caregivers of people living with dementia in SK, prioritizing culturally safe approaches and accessibility. Building on this learning, we are partnering with the Maamwesying North Shore Community Health Services in ON. Caregiver support is a community priority, and Maamwesying is developing an Indigenous memory clinic with their local Alzheimer Society (Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma District). This collaboration provides an ideal environment for implementing and evaluating an Indigenous community/Alzheimer Society partnership in co-creating and implementing caregiver support groups grounded in community needs, perspectives, and priorities. We will work with Maamwesying and the local Alzheimer Society to co-create support groups for Indigenous caregivers of people with dementia. The co-creation process will reveal what works (facilitators) and what does not work (barriers) to implementation of a co-designed culturally safe Indigenous caregiver support group. We will collect data on barriers and facilitators from the multiple perspectives of those involved in this co-creation (organization level, participant level, and caregiver level). We will explore perceived barriers and facilitators from the perspective of other Alzheimer Societies (multiple in AB, BC, SK, and additional in ON), based on what we learn from the Maamwesying/Alzheimer Society co-creation. From this multi-stage evaluation, we will articulate wise and emerging practices for Indigenous community/local Alzheimer Society partnerships that can be used to create support groups with Indigenous caregivers of people living with dementia across the country. Finally, we will co-create educational materials for Alzheimer Society support group facilitators on culturally safe Indigenous dementia care, which the Alzheimer Society of Canada will disseminate to Alzheimer Society staff across the country.