Formal Dementia Care among First Nations in Southwestern Ontario

This article explores how dementia care is provided to First Nations communities in southwestern Ontario. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with health care providers and analysed using a constructivist grounded-theory methodology. Two interrelated frameworks for understanding dementia care were identified: a care delivery framework and a knowledge framework. The care delivery framework identified care goals, care elements being provided, care barriers, and strategies and solutions to deliver care and overcome barriers. The knowledge framework defined four groups of knowledge stakeholders: persons with dementia, informal care providers, formal care providers, and the First Nations community. It identified the knowledge each stakeholder held or needed and processes of sharing - or failing to share - knowledge in dementia care. Several barriers, many created by a lack of knowledge, negatively impacted dementia care. However, health care professionals had effective strategies for providing care, designed to overcome barriers and which encompassed elements of knowledge sharing.