A local program focused on helping people living with dementia has won an award for its work.
The Cognitive Stimulation therapy program recently won the Coping With Transition From Life award from this year’s BC Quality Awards, run by Health Quality BC.
The initiative focuses on supporting patients with mild-to-moderate dementia by engaging them in activities that prompt memories, such as therapy, multi-sensory stimulation, and learning through different themes.
Themes include food, maps, sounds, and childhood, with occupational therapist Alison Ritchie saying that she finds the program meaningful.
“Our aim is to maximize client engagement, using our professional expertise to tailor the activities to the right cognitive challenge in a respectful and fun way,” said Ritchie. “Once clients feel safe and supported, they are often more talkative, confident and have a lot of wonderful stories and opinions to share!”
Health Quality BC says the program comes as a response to the growing need for dementia treatment options, with close to a million people expected to live with dementia by 2030.
They say that with the Comox Valley’s population being older than the regional average, the number of people over 75 years old will double by 2040.
As a result, Alison and her fellow therapist Laurel Steed started the program, which saw cognitive scores improve by 2 to 4 percent, and quality of life by 8.5 percent after it ran for two months.
The program has since expanded to two communities, with 10 trained facilitators working across the Island Health Region.
