The Dementia/Senior’s Mental Health Committee of Simcoe County met for many years to successfully address Dementia and Mental Health concerns and had goals similar to the proposed Dementia Network. This committee agreed to dissolve and become the core organizing force behind a more inclusive Dementia Network.

The Simcoe County Dementia Network was launched in June 2002 as part of Ontario’s Strategy for Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias. Initially, several large forums were held with interested stakeholders to develop a Dementia Network model, terms of reference and a vision for dementia care in Simcoe County.

Terms of Reference for the Simcoe County Dementia Network were approved in November, 2002.

A Steering Committee was formed, and held its first meeting in June 2002. Terms of Reference for the Steering Committee were approved in November, 2002 and the Members of the Steering Committee were nominated and appointed.

Minutes of the Simcoe County Dementia Network Steering Committee are listed below.

To date we have had six large forums with stakeholders from across Simcoe County. At the early forums we agreed on a Network model and structure and nominated/elected the co-chairs. The current co-chairs are
Debbie Islam, Executive Director of the Alzheimer Society of Greater Simcoe County & Christine Lee-Bun, Dementia Assessment & Resource Team, Community Care Access Centre, Simcoe County.

At the forums we engaged in a lengthy visioning process and the identification and prioritization of issues. This information was captured and assembled into a logic model to guide us towards our vision.

The steering committee and some ad hoc committees ensured that the process was completed in a timely fashion resulting in the following two task groups which started meeting Sept. 24th, 2003:

Dementia Education-Training Standards Task Group. This group conducted discussion groups with personal support workers to determine education/training needs of this group. Recommendations were developed to address issues related to personal support worker training program structure/content and ongoing support for personal support workers, and to respond to broader system issues. (report is on this web site).

Dementia Services Directory Task Group

. This group developed the Simcoe County Dementia Network website (www.dementianetworksc.org), including the web-based directory of services for people with Alzheimer Disease and related dementias, their caregivers and physicians.

In 2004 the steering committee initiated a Physician Task Group to pursue the involvement of physicians with the Dementia Network. This group held a focus group with local physicians to investigate ways in which to support physician education with respect to dementia, and to link physicians with community services. To date, a physician newsletter has been published; a memory loss brochure has been produced for physician offices; a workshop has been organized for family physicians with a focus on the learning needs identified through the focus group session; and a tip sheet on screening for cognitive impairment is in development for distribution to family physicians in Simcoe County.

These time limited task groups accomplished a great deal in their first year and at the November, 2004 forum, members voted on the priorities for the next few years. The logic model was revised to reflect the current objectives and three new task groups were created:
At the June 2005 forum, members voted to make the Education Task Group a standing committee.

If you are interested in the work of the current task groups or are interested in becoming a member, contact the chairs listed below.
Education Task Group: Susan Nagy, Alzheimer Society of Orillia & District -705-329-0909 susan.nagy@alzheimerorillia.com
Directory Task Group: Barb Dufton, Collingwood Community Mental Health -705-444-6600 duftonb@cgmh.on.ca or Valerie Powell (facilitator)- 705-721-6754 powellv@cgmh.on.ca
Best Practices Task Group. Gail Saulnier- MHC-P – 705-549-3181 gsaulnier@MHCP.on.ca To recommend best practice in service provision in our community. To determine what services exist, gaps, to review benchmarks.
Physician Task Group : Laura Lynn Bourassa – 705-722-1066 lbourass@csolve.net

Or the Simcoe County Dementia Network Co-chairs:
Debbie Islam, Alzheimer Society of Greater Simcoe - dislam@csolve.net Chris Lee-Bun, CCAC Simcoe County – Chris.Lee-Bun@simcoe.ccac-ont.ca

The Simcoe County Dementia Network received a generous grant for the “Me & U-First” Education Project and will concentrate on completion of this project by December, 05. This project may take precedence over the work of the Task Groups, until January, 06.

The History of the Simcoe County Dementia Network