Baycrest

Message from the Baycrest Board Chair and the President & CEO Built on Dreams the Baycrest way For many, the aging of the global population presents overwhelming challenges. At Baycrest Health Sciences, we see unprecedented opportunities to dramatically redefine the potential for personal engagement, activity and fulfillment in later life. We aim to transform and vastly improve the care and support provided to current and future generations of older adults in our community and beyond. As we approach nearly a century of caring for older adults, Baycrest has become a "gift to the world" from our local Jewish community. We embrace the moral mandate of Tikkun Olam, , "repairing a broken world," to improve the well-being of people in their local communities as well as around the globe. At Baycrest, we are dedicated to optimizing well-being through an unrivaled and innovative portfolio of high quality aging and brain health services and care approaches that enrich the cognitive, emotional, spiritual, social, and physical health of older adults in community, residential and healthcare settings. This has never been a more vital imperative. For the first time in history, it is expected that the number of seniors worldwide will surpass the number of children under the age of five. By 2050, people aged 65 years or older will account for 20 per cent of the world's population. This demographic shift has been accompanied by an increase in the number of people living longer with chronic illnesses, including age-associated brain disorders. Of especially great concern has been the dramatically rising prevalence of dementia, in which Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause. The number of people with dementia worldwide is presently estimated at approximately 35.6 million and is projected to nearly double 2 BAYCREST & BAYCREST FOUNDATION www.baycrest.org every 20 years to 65.7 million in 2030, and 115.4 million in 2050. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is one new case of dementia arising every four seconds. How can we make a difference amidst such daunting demographic realities? If, for instance, through our research and innovations in aging brain health, we could help find a way to delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease by five years, we could cut its prevalence in half. By taking our groundbreaking research from bench to bedside, we will transform aging for seniors on our Bathurst Street campus and around the world. We will uniquely contribute to creating a "new old age." We know brain failure is not inevitable with aging, and we know our work is already helping preserve and extend the cognitive and emotional well-being of older adults. Baycrest will seize the opportunity to bring to an aging world a pioneering, dynamic approach to the care and support of older adults that emphasizes vitality of mind and body, and that is adaptable, scalable and truly transformative. We have a legacy of dreaming what might be possible and then creating it, of never settling for the status quo, and of sharing our work with all who can benefit, locally, nationally and internationally. This is the Baycrest way. GARRY FOSTER Chair, Baycrest Board of Directors DR. WILLIAM REICHMAN President and Chief Executive Officer

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