B.C. resources for health-care providers

Explore helpful resources for health-care providers supporting people affected by dementia in British Columbia

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For more information about resources for health-care providers, please contact: [email protected]

Print materials and helpful links

To access the Alzheimer Society of B.C.’s newsletters, brochures and fact sheets, click here.

To order print resources for your clinic, office or long-term care home in British Columbia and the Yukon using a public order form, click here.

To learn more about how to support caregivers on the dementia journey, including yourself as a health-care professional, click here.

Download the Canadian Centre for Elder Law's practical resources on engaging people living with dementia in legal and health-care decision making here.

Guidelines for care in B.C.

Provincial guide to dementia care in British Columbia: This guide produced by the Ministry of Health outlines priorities in dementia care and makes recommendations on how to achieve them.

R.A.C.E (Rapid Access to Consultative Expertise): A communication framework that allows you to speak directly to a variety of specialists (including within the areas of geriatrics and neurology).

Phased Dementia Pathway: Easy access to evidence-based clinical practice recommendations and support tools for caring for a person living with dementia provided by Interior Health.

Doctors of BC Dementia Policy: A policy update expanding on Doctors of BC's commitments and calls to action on improving dementia care in B.C.

Dementia Guidelines: The Province of B.C.’s guidelines for supporting caregivers and caring for people living with dementia, specifically focused on non-pharmacological interventions.

Canadian Centre for Elder Law’s “Conversations About Care: The Law and Practice of Health Care Consent for People Living with Dementia in British Columbia”: The CCEL’s new report mapping practice and law regarding health care consent in B.C.

Health-Care Providers Guide to Consent for Health Care: The Province of B.C.’s guide to help health-care professionals understand the basic legal requirements for ensuring valid consent (or refusal) of proposed health-care treatment for an adult in British Columbia.

Best Practice Guidelines for Accommodating and Managing Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia in Long-term Care: The Province of B.C.’s guide to person-centred, interdisciplinary care of people living with dementia in long-term care, specifically aimed at reducing the use of antipsychotic drugs.

Dementia-Friendly Care Homes: Best Practices in Dementia Care: Developed by Kishore Seetharaman and Habib Chaudhury, Department of Gerontology, Simon Fraser University, in consultation with the BC Care Providers Association and the Alzheimer Society of B.C., this report outlines best practices in person-centred dementia care in the areas of staffing, education, training and the physical environment.

Best Practices in Dementia Care: A Review of the Grey Literature on Guidelines for Staffing and Physical Environment in Long-Term Care: This article, published in the Canadian Journal on Aging, is a comprehensive review of the research behind the Dementia-Friendly Care Homes report linked above.

Dementia Companion Handbook – Guiding your conversations with health-care professionals (2023) A resource developed by Providence Health Care, in collaboration with Shared Care, to assist a person living with dementia with care planning, documenting conversations with different health-care providers, recording questions for future meetings and linking to relevant information and support. Find the printable version here.

I'm a health-care provider in B.C.

An overview of the education and resources available for health-care providers in B.C., including how to make referrals and guidance on working with people affected by dementia.

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Education for health-care providers

We offer self-paced online learning, webinars and phone support services for health-care providers who work with people affected by dementia. For frontline staff working in publicly funded long term care, we also offer U-First!® dementia training.

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U-First!® dementia training

U-First!® is a standardized training program designed to help frontline staff develop a common knowledge base, language and approach to caring for people with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.

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