Physicians and researchers who specialize in dementia care and prevention say a new $30 million charity donation to seven Toronto hospitals and organizations will significantly bolster their programming.There has been a 48 per cent increase in the number of patients with dementia in Ontario since 2010, according to a new analysis of Ontario Health Insurance Plan billing released by the Ontario Medical Association on Thursday.
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.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."The greatest risk factor for dementia is just age.
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. "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.
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. 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.