Contact Information

Office Number: 519-432-2648 ext. 2319

E-mail: research@mccormickcare.ca

Our Office Address

2022 Kains Road

London, ON N6K 0A8

Contact Information

Office Number: 519-432-2648 ext. 2319

Email: research@mccormickcare.ca

Our Office Address

2022 Kains Road

London, ON N6K 0A8

Enhanced Care Partner Education Pilot Study

In our continuing goal to develop a best practice model of dementia care, McCormick Dementia Services is partnering with Western University and Behavioural Supports Ontario to conduct a pilot project for an enhanced education series for care partner of people with dementia. With the support of the McCormick Care Foundation, the FACET project — Family Care Partner Education and Training – involves studying the interaction between care partners and simulated dementia patients to discover new ways to engage in meaningful activity and to minimize or redirect agitated behaviours.

Post-Graduate Studies/Certificate in Personal Support Work

A post-graduate learning opportunity for students of Fanshawe College’s Personal Support Worker program is being developed by McCormick Dementia Services, Fanshawe College, Western University and the London Health Sciences Centre’s Behavioural Supports Ontario program. Specializing in dementia care, the program involves students learning from and interacting with simulated dementia patients as well as experiencing a day program student placement opportunity.

Service Learning with King’s University College

A service learning experience provides students of the Masters in Social Work program at King’s University College with an opportunity to connect with early stage dementia clients in the McCormick Day Program. Students benefit from the personal interaction and debriefing opportunities that help shed some light on the experiences and specific care needs of this population.

Western University

• Faculty of Health Sciences
• Nursing
• Physical Therapy
• Health Studies
• Occupational Therapy
• Communication Sciences and Disorders
• Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry
• Social Work at King’s University College
• Faculty of Information and Media Studies

Fanshawe College

• School of Nursing
  • Collaborative Nursing
  • Personal Service Workers
• School of Community Studies
  • Recreation and Leisure Studies
  • Gerontology Interprofessional Practice
• School of Design
• School of Information Technology

Hospitals

• London Health Sciences Centre
• St. Joseph’s Health Care Centre
• Parkwood Institute

Other Organizations

• Baycrest Health Sciences
• Brain Canada
• Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging

McCormick Dementia Research embraces the vision, mission, and values of the McCormick Care Group.

Vision

We create a caring community in which our clients, residents, family members, and care partners – especially those living with dementia – feel a sense of safety, belonging, and purpose.

Mission

We champion care that enables people with dementia to lead meaningful lives. We strategically invest in innovative programs, staff development, knowledge sharing, best-practice applications, and research projects that focus on improving care.

Guiding Principles

• Compassion – We listen to understand the hopes and needs of those we serve, and do our best to respond. We treat each other with kindness and dignity.
• Accountability – We earn the trust of those we serve, our teams and our partners by honouring our commitments. We carefully and responsibly manage our resources.
• Respect – We value diverse cultures and perspectives. We communicate honestly and politely. We nurture relationships with our clients, residents, and families, and advocate passionately on their behalf.
• Excellence – We bring our best to work every day and lead by example. We use current research evidence and best practice guidelines to continuously improve the care we provide. We celebrate our successes.
• Collaboration – We strengthen our teams, learn from each other, and contribute to enhancing the health care system through respectful cooperation, knowledge sharing, and mutually beneficial partnerships.

McCormick Dementia Research

McCormick Dementia Research provides advanced dementia care through thoughtful and strategic research partnerships and collaborations. We strive to create an environment where knowledge transfer is a priority, meaning others can learn and improve quality of care as a result of our findings. We are committed to creating partnerships and fostering an environment of collaboration both internally and externally.

McCormick Dementia Research is the latest community care service founded on a legacy of care established by the McCormick Care Group (formerly the Women’s Christian Association), which began in 1874. Beginning with setting up a soup kitchen in London’s Market Square, over the years these pioneering women established many community services for the sick, homeless, elderly, and orphaned. Many of these outreach organizations continue to provide care in the London community today, including McCormick Home, McCormick Dementia Services (formerly Alzheimer Outreach Services), Parkwood Institute and Wellspring London and Region.

Today, McCormick Care Group continues to oversee the operation of McCormick Home, a long-term care home for seniors, and McCormick Dementia Services, Ontario’s largest adult day program serving individuals and their families who are living with dementia. McCormick Care Group is also proud to have founded a research division, McCormick Dementia Research, in our continuing quest to research ways to enhance the quality of life for those facing a dementia diagnosis.

McCormick Dementia Research shares the core values of McCormick Care Group, its founding organization: Compassion, Accountability, Collaboration, Respect and Excellence. Our work involves enhancing our ability to partner with other organizations on our journey to learn more about how to improve the quality of life for those facing a dementia diagnosis and their care partners.

Research, Education and Learning Interests

Responsive behaviours that develop as a result of dementia often lead to an increased investment in caring for the individual. When behaviours cannot be managed safely at home and/or in the community, long-term care is often the recommended solution. Responsive behaviours are sometimes barriers to access to long-term care and individuals remaining in the community are often left to seek help through emergency departments. If individuals are able to access long-term care and responsive behaviours continue, pharmacological interventions are used and, in some cases, individuals are transferred to other care settings. All these interventions come at increased costs to the health care system and may have detrimental impacts on the individual.

Strategies for managing responsive behaviours are used currently in the McCormick Day Program as well as in Memory Lane, our dementia care unit at McCormick Home. We need to understand what strategies work best and develop evidence-based models of care that can be applied across the continuum of care that we offer.

In particular, we are interested in answering the following questions:

• What are the current interventions used in the McCormick Day Program and within the Memory Lane unit at McCormick Home and what indicators would be useful in tracking the success of these interventions?
• What interventions are leading to improved results with the identified indicators?
• How can we develop pilot projects to test the validity of alternative interventions in our current model of care?
• How can we test and evaluate the results of these pilot projects?
• How do we implement evidence-based care across the continuum of care?

For more information, please contact us.