Since September 2016, a group of students from Havergal College in
Toronto, Canada have established and grown the Dementia Awareness Program in partnership with Professor Nathan
Herrmann. Professor Herrmann is the Richard Lewar Chair in Geriatric Psychiatry
at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the University of Toronto. At
Sunnybrook, he is Head of the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry, co-director of
the Clinical Neuropharmacology Laboratory, and a scientist in the Hurvitz Brain
Sciences Research Program and the Center for Stroke Recovery. With over 530
publications and 130 research grants, Dr. Herrmann is a world leading expert on
dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Under the mentorship of Professor Herrmann, we established the Dementia Awareness Program in 2016. The
purpose of our program to raise awareness of and reduce the stigma surrounding
dementia both within and beyond our community, while also providing the
opportunity for high school students to volunteer weekly with individuals with
dementia.
We have used our blog these past two years as an avenue to share
our experience working with people with dementia, as well as sharing the
knowledge we have learned about dementia as we stay up to date with current
research in the field. Since the inception of our blog in 2016, we are proud to
say that we have increased awareness of dementia worldwide – with over 3,000
visits from readers across the world.
We are thrilled to be gearing up for the third year of the Dementia Awareness Program by continuing
both our blog here and the community partnership between Havergal College
students and a local seniors’ residence. This year, our monthly blog series
will feature exciting new research developments regarding dementia, as well as local
female dementia experts and researchers who are world-renowned for their work.
We sincerely hope that this will be of interest to you and the
community. Together, we can learn more about this important cause and the
ground-breaking research in this field.
You can also follow Professor Herrmann’s “Memory Doctor” blog for
dementia caregivers at: http://health.sunnybrook.ca/memory-doctor/
Professor
Nathan Herrmann and Student Executive Team
Chair
Selina
Chow
Vice-Chair
Clarissa Yu
Vice-Chair
Olivia Nadalini
Nathan Herrmann MD FRCPC
Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
Lewar Chair, Geriatric Psychiatry
Head, Division of Geriatric Psychiatry
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
