Rare Dementia Support Canada featured at Canadian Association on Gerontology Conference
20-22 October 2022 in Regina
At this year’s CAG conference Dr. Mary Pat Sullivan joined colleagues from the UK to deliver a seminar on developing international collaborations in healthy aging research. Hosted by the UKRI Healthy Ageing Challenge, early career researchers from the UK and Canada gathered to share strategies on building research networks to address global issues on healthy aging.
Dr. Sullivan also presented on the development of RDS Canada and its emerging model informed by the ESRC/NIHR funded Rare Dementia Support Impact Study.

- Sip & Sonder: Connections with Self, Family, Community and the Natural EnvironmentThank you to all who gathered at the North Bay museum on November 1st and 2nd to explore our installation of stories of connection and living with dementia. The event included welcome and refreshments, open gallery & Imagine and Create Your Own Maps.
- Support Group for Familial Alzheimer’s DiseaseIn partnership with Rare Dementia Support (UK) and Youngtimers (USA), Rare Dementia Support Canada hosted a joint support group to bring together individuals from the US, Canada, and the UK (and beyond) impacted by autosomal dominantly inherited familial Alzheimer's disease (sometimes referred to as ADAD, DIAD or FAD). We are pleased to announce that the 90 minute group support session ran on Sunday, November 19th and included an international group of participants. For more information please email rdscanada@nipissingu.ca.
- Talking Lines creative research update Talking Lines is a research project which combines both visual and verbal modes of communication, taking the concept of the drawn line as a starting point to promote communication and narrative construction. Talking Lines invited 27 people living with or caring for someone with a rare dementia to draw and talk about their experiences; reflecting on deeply challenging situations such as maintaining identity in the face of a diagnosis, the realities of care, and wider social and cultural narratives about dementia. There will be a presentation of this research at the Drawing Room Library, London (UK), which will focus on the drawings and words of 4 participants who took part in the research, including Canadian participation.