BU Research Blog

BUDI welcome 
Associate Professor Elaine Wiersma to deliver a lunch time seminar

Date:     Tuesday 8 April
Time:     12 Noon until 13.00
Venue:  EB203

Limited places available:  email mobrien@bournemouth.ac.uk to reserve your place.

Engaging People Living with Dementia in the Development of Services: Lessons Learned from a Canadian Context
This presentation will explore the ways that a Canadian research team is engaging people living with dementia in the development of services. Specifically, two projects will be discussed—the development of a self-management program for people living with dementia, and a dementia journey mapping project. The engagement of health and social care providers with researchers and people living with dementia will be described within those two projects. Lessons learned about people, relationships, and process will be described and discussed.

Bio:
Elaine Wiersma is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences, at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. She is the Advisor for the Interdisciplinary Certificate in Dementia Studies, the lead of re-THINKing dEMENTIA, the division of Dementia and Seniors’ Mental Health at the Centre for Education and Research on Aging & Health, Lakehead University, and the chair of the North West Dementia Network. Her work has spanned community and long-term care sectors, using qualitative and participatory methodologies to examine the social dimensions of aging and dementia. Currently, her work is focusing on the development of self-management in dementia and exploring the context of aging and dementia in rural northern communities in Ontario. Elaine is engaged in a number of initiatives, both research and community initiatives, that seek to engage people living with dementia and care partners as equal partners, recognizing that the involvement of these groups is vital to creating more effective services and programs.