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The Toronto Dementia Research Alliance (TDRA) is pleased to welcome Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences (Ontario Shores) as a partner. Ontario Shores is a public teaching hospital based in Whitby, Ontario. Using evidence-based approaches, the hospital provides specialized assessment and treatment services to people living with complex and serious mental illness. Ontario Shores also has a research program that investigates a range of specialties and populations.
Established in 2012, the TDRA is an academic coalition among the University of Toronto and affiliated academic hospitals, including Baycrest, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, the University Health Network (UHN), and now Ontario Shores. Across these partner sites, clinicians and researchers work together to better understand, prevent, and treat dementia.
“Ontario Shores welcomes opportunities to partner with leading healthcare organizations to develop new care approaches in mental health,” said Karim Mamdani, President and CEO of Ontario Shores. “It is through strong collaborations such as the Toronto Dementia Research Alliance that collectively we can create meaningful change to improve the treatment options and quality of life for those impacted by dementia.”
Recently, Ontario Shores shifted the focus of the dementia care provided at the hospital toward the neuropsychiatric aspects of the illness. In partnering with the TDRA, Ontario Shores hopes to leverage the expertise of TDRA partner sites to advance point of care research in dementia and mental health. Through collaborating with TDRA partner sites on joint research initiatives, Ontario Shores also hopes to increase their capacity to have national and international impact in the areas of development they are pursuing.
“Ontario Shores is thrilled to become a partner of the Toronto Dementia Research Alliance,” said Dr. Amer Burhan, geriatric psychiatrist, Physician-in-Chief and Chair for applied mental health research at Ontario Shores. “We are excited to join forces with such an expert group of partners, sharing our expertise and research to advance the care of individuals with dementia and their families and caregivers.”
In advancing the strategic direction of standardization of dementia care, the TDRA will benefit from the knowledge and expertise that Ontario Shores can share. Additionally, Ontario Shores will expand the scope of research areas explored by the TDRA, as well as enrich the research conducted. Within the TDRA research setting, Ontario Shores will lead projects focused on caregiver interventions and technology-enabled dementia care. Ontario Shores will also host a TDRA fellowship that provides doctors with additional training in the diagnosis and management of dementia.
“We are excited to have Ontario Shores join the TDRA community,” said Dr. Tarek Rajji, Executive Director of the TDRA. “We look forward to supporting the synergy of bringing their expertise in measurement-based care, neurotechnology, and caregiver initiatives to the rest of the community, and to further embedding research into care beyond the Toronto academic centres for a wider reach and access in serving people living with dementia or with conditions that increase the risk of dementia and their families.”
The addition of Ontario Shores to the TDRA community will bring value for researchers, clinicians, and people living with dementia and their families.
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