What We Do
As more people choose to live at home as they grow older, Developing Supportive Neighbourhood-Built Environment to Foster Mobility, Engagement and Social Participation among Community-Dwelling Adults Living with Dementia (DemSCAPE) aims to understand the steps communities can take to make neighbourhoods friendly for people living with dementia and their caregivers. This interdisciplinary community-based research project engages people living with dementia and their care partners in Metro Vancouver and Prince George to discover what barriers exist in the built environment and what improvements can be made through guidelines for dementia-inclusive communities that can be used by policymakers, decision-makers, and the public.
Our Objectives
- Identify neighbourhood destinations that persons living with dementia visit and changes in the patterns of visits over time.
- Identify neighbourhood built environmental features that affect mobility, engagement and social participation among persons living with dementia
- Develop an easy-to-use environmental audit and advocacy tool to conduct descriptive and evaluative assessment of the neighbourhood environment supportive of persons living with dementia.
- Develop planning and design guidelines to inform decision-makers, such as municipal policymakers, city planners, urban designers and engineers in the creation of a dementia-inclusive neighbourhood environment.
- Identify targeted built environmental intervention projects in the partner municipalities of the City of Richmond and City of Burnaby in British Columbia.
Ongoing involvement of the City of Richmond, B.C., City of Burnaby, B.C., City of Prince George, B.C., Alzheimer Society of B.C. and Community Advisory Committee will meaningfully contribute to achieving these goals.
Where are we collecting data?
Metro Vancouver is a federation of 21 municipalities. DemSCAPE has partnered with the City of Burnaby and the City of Richmond on this research; however participants can join the study from other municipalities.
Prince George is a hub city in Northern British Columbia.
The project seeks to understand differences between navigation and built environment in Metro Vancouver and in Prince George, Birtish Columbia. Representing different facets of the Canadian experience, Prince George offers insights into aging in place in more rural communities. The DemSCAPE team is looking for 16 - 20 Metro Vancouver participants and 8 - 10 in Prince George.
Study Participants
This study aims to hightlight the experience of 24 - 30 persons living with mild to moderate dementia in the community who can walk independently and communicate comfortably in English to tell us about what helps and hinders engagement with their neighbourhood built environment. We welcome care partners, as needed, to support participants.
Recruitment strategies for this project include local presentations at dementia support and resource groups, sharing recruitment posters through online networks, and partnership with UBC Hospital Clinic for Alzheimer Disease and Related Disorders.