Baycrest

BrainMatters • Spring/Summer 2022 • 11 INNOVATIONS IN CAREGIVING – A Portal to Care As any caregiver can confirm, seeing to the needs of a person with cognitive impairments or dementia can be a very trying role. For more than 100 years, Baycrest has dedicated its work to providing exemplary care for older adults. Today, with modern technology and the availability of online information at one's fingertips, Baycrest continues to lead the way with a wealth of tools for caregivers to access. The Baycrest Caregiving Portal could be one of the most useful resources around, thanks to the efforts of Baycrest's Education Team, which designed the Healthcare Portal and created a special section for caregiving. Dr. Adriana Shnall, Program Director at Baycrest's Koschitzky Centre for Innovations in Caregiving and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, says she hopes community members will take full advantage of the website. "The Baycrest Caregiving Portal is an incredible resource. It contains an expansive mix of educational, interactive, innovative and helpful products and services; many of them free to use or download for our community," she says. The Koschitzky Centre is also listed on the portal as a "one-stop resource" that works in partnership with families and paid caregivers, clinical experts, educators and researchers to accelerate the development of innovative solutions and effective caregiving resources and interventions. Baycrest-developed items that can be found on the portal include: • Online webinars/seminars • Caregiver support and services • Caregiver support elearning modules • Family mentor program • Medication management for caregivers of people with dementia elearning modules • Caregiving products, manuals and guides Speaking about the medication management module, Dr. Shnall says that helping caregivers with improving management of medications is one issue that can be easily overlooked when caregiving, but is in fact an essential need for people living with dementia. "One of the difficult things for patients and caregivers to manage is daily medication," she says. "Sometimes their impairments make it hard to keep track. We are in the midst of trialing a pilot project where caregivers, in addition to using the online learning modules, can avail themselves of the services of a pharmacist to review their medications and see which pill-dispensing system would best fit their needs in supporting their relative living with dementia." Readers interested in participating in this trial should email info@baycrestathome.ca and ask to be contacted about the medication management program. Dr. Adriana Shnall, Program Director at Baycrest's Koschitzky Centre for Innovations in Caregiving and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto

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