Welcome Back from Professor Nathan Herrmann and Student Chair Selina Chow

Last year, a group of students from Havergal College established the Dementia Awareness Program in partnership with Professor Nathan Herrmann - Head of the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. The purpose of our program is to increase the community’s understanding and appreciation of dementia, reduce the stigma associated with mental illnesses, as well as provide the valuable opportunity for high school students to volunteer with, and enrich the lives of people with dementia. While visiting the residents in a dementia care home in Toronto, Canada weekly, we shared our experience and the knowledge we learned about dementia with the community on this blog. Our blog has been a key tool in raising awareness of dementia and de-stigmatizing this common illness. Since we began our blog last year, we received more than 2,000 visits from over 10 countries worldwide - including United States, Russia, Mexico, Germany, Hong Kong, Argentina, France, Australia, Poland, and more.

We are very excited to be gearing up for another year of the Dementia Awareness Program this year, by continuing our community partnership between Havergal College students and a local senior’s residence, while also continuing our blog here. In particular, this year’s blog series will feature current research developments in dementia, along with “Ask the Expert” posts. We want to open up our blog to include your questions about dementia through “Ask the Expert”, which will be answered by Professor Nathan Herrmann. Please feel free to take advantage of this opportunity to ask our world-renowned expert, whether it be about the pathogenesis of the illness or how to interact with a family member with dementia. Questions can be submitted through the comments section on this blog. We look forward to receiving your questions!

We hope this will be of interest to you and the community. Together, we can learn more about this important cause and work to de-stigmatize dementia.

You can also follow Dr. Herrmann’s “Memory Doctor” blog for dementia caregivers at: http://health.sunnybrook.ca/memory-doctor/

Professor Nathan Herrmann and Student Chair Selina Chow

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