Welcome Back from Professor Nathan Herrmann and Student Executive Team

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

Concluding Remarks by Professor Nathan Herrmann and Student Chair Selina Chow

This past school year, we have continued the Dementia Awareness Program through our weekly blog posts and volunteer work with seniors with dementia. At the beginning of this year, we were met with an overwhelming number of students interested in joining the program and have ultimately formed a group of 10 dedicated student volunteers. Each student has been paired with a resident with dementia at Briton House – a seniors residence in Toronto.

Since October 2017, we have visited our partners at Briton House weekly to provide companionship and engage in mentally-stimulating activities, such as arts and crafts. While we all had varying degrees of experience, with some students who had no prior experience with seniors with dementia to others who were involved with this program last year, we were able to successfully engage the residents in conversation, activities, and even holiday-themed parties. Although there were challenges at times, we have learned to problem solve and ultimately improved our communication skills when working with individuals with dementia. It has been a privilege to work with these amazing seniors and we are honoured to have made a difference in their lives, as they never fail to let us know how much joy we bring to their day.

As our time at Briton House comes to a close for this year, we want to thank the residents for letting us into their lives. We will miss them dearly and look forward to seeing them again soon. We would also like to thank the staff at Briton House for supporting us weekly and helping us to organize all the activities we did with the seniors. Last but not least, we are grateful to Dr. Herrmann for his leadership of the Dementia Awareness Program and his mentorship throughout our learning process this year.

To our readers, thank you for following our blog posts again this year, and we hope that you have been able to deepen your understanding of dementia through the ‘Ask the Expert’ segments and the bi-weekly updates on current research in this field. For additional information on dementia, you can also follow Dr. Herrmann’s “Memory Doctor” blog for dementia caregivers at: http://health.sunnybrook.ca/memory-doctor/

On behalf of all the Havergal College students involved in this program, thank you for your continued support of the Dementia Awareness Program. It has been another successful year of this community initiative, following its inaugural year last year, and we hope to continue enriching the lives of individuals with dementia, advocating for this important cause, and de-stigmatizing the illness.

Professor Nathan Herrmann and Selina Chow (Student Chair)

Nathan Herrmann MD FRCPC

Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto

Lewar Chair in Geriatric Psychiatry

Head, Division of Geriatric Psychiatry

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Student Reflections

This past school year, a group of students from Havergal College in Toronto, Canada have continued their volunteer work at a local nursing home – similar to their experience last year. During these weekly visits at Briton House, we spend time with seniors with dementia to engage them in conversation and brain-stimulating activities. While we initially began our volunteer work with the intention of helping individuals with dementia, we have actually benefited tremendously from the experience ourselves. In working with these residents, we have deepened our understanding of the disease, formed strong intergenerational friendships, and furthered our compassion, patience, and interpersonal skills.

Although some of us had never worked with seniors with dementia before, we learned to communicate and interact with a person with dementia, thanks to our amazing mentors – Professor Nathan Herrmann at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and University of Toronto and the staff at Briton House.

Our time at the nursing home has been filled with many highlights, along with some challenges along the way. Each of our visits have been very memorable, whether it be the fun we had making scrapbooks with the residents, having holiday parties, or just relaxing and conversing over a cup of tea and a good book.

We have been fortunate to meet seniors who have shared life lessons and stories from their childhood with us. Each of the individuals we have interacted with are extremely unique; one of them was part of a team in the Canadian Armed Forces that decoded bombs during the war, another one was previously a physician, and another resident used to attend our school. It is through these interactions that we have discovered the beauty and brighter side to dementia, because we learn as much from these individuals as they do from us.

Below are individual reflections from some of our student volunteers. 

Carolyne You:

When I first entered Briton House, I wasn't sure what was going to happen. I've never interacted with people who have dementia and after reading multiple articles about how to do so, I was very anxious. For the next two weeks, it was the only thing I could think about. "What if I say the wrong thing? What do I do?" were constant thoughts I had. When we arrived at Briton House for our tour, I encountered this wonderful woman in the theatre. She was so delightful and full of joy; it was contagious. I thought to myself, "I hope my partner is as lively as her". Soon enough the following week, I found out who my partner was going to be for the next few months. Coincidentally enough, it was the woman I met in the theatre. My heart soared. I knew that I was going to get along with her. Over the next few visits, I got the opportunity to learn about her - what her hobbies were and even about her childhood. Every visit, I bonded with her more. Our conversations were easy going and surprisingly enough, I talked about more personal things with her than I do with my own mom. These visits every Wednesday was the highlight of my week. It felt so nice to see her because I knew that not many people come to see her. Whenever I saw her, her face would light up. I knew that just by coming to visit her, it made her day. Just knowing that it made her day is all that I needed. Every now and then, she looks lost or not there, which breaks my heart. Now I realize that for her, all I need to do is just be there.

Ariana Seyedmakki:

After learning about different diseases and how to treat patients through my extra-curricular activities and hobbies, I became interested to work with dementia patients in a residential home. I was surprised to get a good friend out of the experience; a resident at Briton House has become a great friend of mine over the past few months. We meet every week, write letters, engage in mind-stimulating games and complete art activities. Through these activities, we complement each other - I hope to comfort her and potentially ease some of her symptoms, while she uncovered in me the skill of being present and patient with someone inflicted by dementia. Thankfully, she enjoys our encounters just as much as I do and tells me that looks forward to our weekly visits. In order to be able to interact with her in the most effective way, I am in contact with Dr. Herrmann, a dementia specialist at Sunnybrook Hospital, to update him about my visits and ask questions.


Overall, it has been a privilege to work with these seniors with dementia every week. We would like to sincerely thank Professor Herrmann and the staff at Briton House for mentoring us this year. As well, we want to thank the residents for letting us into their lives and for befriending us. We are so honoured to hear how much they look forward to our visits every week, and we hope that together, we can restore some of what dementia takes away.

Research Update: Sleep and Dementia

Sleep is an extremely important health-related factor that is often overlooked. Sleep deprivation is known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and causes irritability, fatigue, and more. However, the risk of developing dementia is also related to sleep. In February 2018, the Journal of the Alzheimer's Association published an article exploring the relationship between sleep and dementia. The research was conducted in the United States, and the study was conducted over a time period of 15 years.

The way that sleep was measured was through polysomnography. Polysomnography is a type of sleep test that uses a device to measure different sleep stages through brain waves, heart rate, temperature, and more. Participants were also asked to describe their sleep patterns and duration to complement the tests. The following conclusions from the study were drawn:

It was found that severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) increased the risk of dementia from all causes. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a condition where the airway becomes completely or partially obstructed during sleep. This condition, characterized by snoring and episodes when the person appears to stop breathing, leads to short periods where there is no air intake, thus the body does not get oxygen. The reasoning behind this may be because OSA can cause cardiovascular problems such as hypertension and atherosclerosis. Hypertension (high blood pressure), and atherosclerosis (plaque build-up in arteries) can both cause dementia by restricting the blood flow to the brain.  

Similar to OSA, sleep duration increased the risk of dementia. Specifically, sleeping less than 7 hours compared to 8-9 hours increased the risk of dementia. While the results of this study were intriguing, the authors of the study explain that more research is needed to further support the claims relating sleep duration and risk of dementia.

For more information on the study, visit: http://www.alzheimersanddementia.com/article/S1552-5260(17)32522-0/fulltext#sec2.1