City-Wide Psychiatry Rounds - Ontario Shores
Technology Enabled Dementia
Presenters:
Dr. Amer Burhan
Dr. Burhan is a Geriatric Psychiatrist, Physician-in-Chief and Endowed Chair for Applied Mental Health Research at the Ontario Shores Centre of Mental Health Sciences in the Whitby Ontario, Associate Professor in Psychiatry at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine. He is a site principle investigator on several pragmatic clinical trials in the area of neuropsychiatry of dementia and in therapeutic brain intervention for resistant mental illness in addition to being active in several initiatives to develop guidelines to standardize definitions, assessment and management of treatment resistant mental illnesses. He is the co-lead researcher on the newly established Advancing Dementia Care Centre (ADCC).
Dr. Mary Chiu
Dr. Mary Chiu is an Academic Researcher whose research interests lie within geriatric psychiatry, specifically the social psychology of older adults and the concept of psychological resilience in the context of informal caregiving and dementia. Her primary research aim is to identify individual level factors (e.g. psychological and somatic well-being) and community level factors (e.g. social-connectedness and workplace enablers and barriers) that promote resilience and effective coping by exploring the interactions within and across these levels using an ecological framework applied to informal carers. In addition, her work aims to evaluate clinical interventions which addresses complex needs and challenges of informal carers caring for someone with dementia
Dr. Winnie Sun
Dr. Winnie Sun (RN, PhD, Nursing ) is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ontario Tech University, and she is holding a research appointment as the CoResearch Director for the Advancement in Dementia Care Centre in Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences, As a nurse with clinical expertise in gerontology, Dr. Sun develops a strong passion in educating nursing students about the care of older adults, with emphasis on cognitive impairment within community health, home healthcare and long-term care settings. As a research scientist in gerontology, Dr. Sun possesses a research agenda with a strong focus on the development and utilization of gerontechnology to advance dementia care and to support older adults with the goal of aging in place.
Learning Objectives:
- To understand the limitations and opportunities of the utilization of a web-based application and virtual reality platforms for facilitating reminiscence therapy for persons with dementia.
- To provide insights into the process of co-designing prototypes to improve the traditional form of reminiscence therapy for persons with dementia by adding immersive, customizable, and interactive virtual reality experiences.
- To describe the rationale for using peripheral physiological markers for early detection of agitation in dementia.