The overwhelming majority of care partners are adult children and spouses, 88 per cent of whom are of working age, according to the Alzheimer Society of B.C.
Stats show as of 2022, approximately 85,800 people in B.C. live with dementia and researchers project as many as 247,300 people will have a diagnosis by 2050 – a 218 per cent increase. In 2020, an estimated 50,400 family, friends and neighbours provided approximately 45,000 unpaid hours of support – projected to increase to 144,900 by 2050.
In recognition of National Caregiver Awareness Month, Mariko Sakamoto – assistant professor of nursing at the University of Victoria and host of the Call to Mind podcast – is hosting and moderating a free online event Monday (May 26).
“Caregivers are critical to supporting people living with dementia in our communities, especially since we have many people needing to age in place for as long as possible,” Sakamoto said in a news release.
Speakers include BC Seniors Advocate Dan Levitt; Barb MacLean, executive director for Family Caregivers of BC; Cari Randa-Beaulieu, Alzheimer Society of B.C., provincial coordinator of knowledge mobilization; podcast storyteller Ashley Sharma, who is a social worker and primary caregiver to her grandmother; and Lana-Michele Armstrong, podcast storyteller who lives with her father Ren and their large family on a horse farm near Kamloops.
The free online event, Shared Stories, Stronger Connections: A Story-based Gathering on Dementia and Caregiving, is on May 26 at 7:30 p.m. Register online at calltomindpodcast.com/events2025.
