Adding life to years
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Summary

The Municipality of Port Hope and the Alzheimer’s Society of Peterborough, Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland, and Haliburton have partnered together to offer the Minds In Motion program in Port Hope. Minds In Motion is a program offered through the Alzheimer’s Society for participants who are experiencing early to mid-stage signs of dementia. The program is a combination of physical activity and mental simulation, but it also fosters social cohesion by bringing people together, allowing stories and laughter to be shared, and fostering new friendships.

Each Minds In Motion session lasts two hours, and runs once a week for 8 weeks. The sessions include 1 hour of easy to follow physical activity and 1 hour of fun social activities focused on building personal skills. Participants are accompanied to the program with their caregivers, who also participate in the program’s activities. Through the program’s partnership scheme, the Alzheimer’s Society is able to offer this program at an affordable cost for each participating pair. The Minds In Motion program has been successfully running in Port Hope at the Jack Burger Sports Complex since January 2018.

Website: http://alzheimer.ca/en/pklnh/We-can-help/Minds-In-Motion/What-is-Minds-in-Motion

Key facts

Main target group: Older people with chronic health conditions or disability

Sector(s): Education, Health, Social protection

Desired outcome for older people:
Be mobile

Other issues the Age-friendly practice aims to address:
  • Accessibility
  • Dementia
  • Healthy behaviours (e.g. physical activity)
  • Inclusion
  • Participation

Contact details

Name: Emily Morris

Email address: jsnoek@porthope.ca


Age-friendly practice in detail (click to expand):

Engaging the wider community

Project lead: Social or health care provider

Others involved in the project:
  • Local authorities
  • Civil Society Organisation

Older people’s involvement: Older people were not directly involved

Moving forward

Has the impact of this age-friendly practice been analysed: No

Do you plan to evaluate your age-friendly practice? Yes

Looking back

Challenges:
This program is not funded by the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, and therefore project funding is a concern for the Alzheimer’s Society. To address this in the short-term, grant funding is currently being used to run the program, but the Alzheimer’s Society is also seeking alternative means of financial support.