The goal of this project is to develop, implement and evaluate a suite of on-demand, online resources that provide knowledge and skills to family/friend care partners, who support people living with dementia.
Key information
Who is this project for? Family/friend care partners/caregivers residing in Canada
Project Lead: Centre for Health Care Research and Innovation (Conestoga College)
Project status: ongoing, 2025 - 2027
Project location: Kitchener, Ontario (with collaborators located across Canada)
Project team members:
- Linda Sheiban Taucar, Director
- Dr. Catherine E. Tong, Senior Researcher
- Fateema Kassam, Training Specialist
- Erin Sevigny, Training Specialist
- Dr. Amy Matharu, Project Coordinator
Get in touch:
Project story
Background:
Our team has developed a successful online training platform called CRADLE+ (Canadian Remote Access for Dementia Learning Experiences) for unregulated care workers (e.g. personal support workers). When developing and offering CRADLE+, community partners emphasized the need for a similar resource for family care partners. This also reflects recent national and provincial calls for more care partner supports and dementia education.
We leverage our existing CRADLE+ platform, interdisciplinary team, experienced education developers and established multi-sectoral partnerships to co-design resources with and for care partners.
Goals:
Objectives include:
- Co-design and launch three new modules for caregivers, with an emphasis on gaps in existing resources including (1) disease progression, (2) care partner well-being and (3) system navigation (broadly).
- Offer companion resources and webinars.
- Use a range of proven promotion and knowledge dissemination strategies to enhance reach and uptake
- Develop and implement an evaluation plan
Key Takeaways:
- The educational modules are co-designed with an Advisory Committee. The committee consists of family care partners, LTC, retirement and home care administrators, clinicians, and industry stakeholders located across Canada.
- Once complete, the modules will be free for anyone to access, are compliant with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) and will include French translation.
- The educational modules are not graded, and do not need to be completed at once. Care Partners can return to these modules as often as they would like, and receive a certificate once completed.
- Each module includes a combination of videos, photos, quotes from real Canadian care partners, and interactive activities, all utilizing best practices for adult learning
Current project activities:
The three educational modules are currently under development with the Advisory Committee.
Each module also contains a video component. Filming is scheduled for Winter 2026.
Resources this project has developed:
Will be provided once available (anticipated Spring 2026)