Dementia Prevention in Canada: Individual Risk, Collective Responsibility

President & Chief Scientist, Baycrest Academy for Research and Education, and the Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation (CABHI); Sandra A. Rotman Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience, Rotman Research Institute. 

Dr. Samir Sinha is a Geriatrician and Clinician Scientist at Sinai Health System and the University Health Network in Toronto, a Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, the Director of Health Policy Research at Toronto Metropolitan University’s National Institute on Ageing, as well as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and the Royal Society of Medicine. 

A Rhodes Scholar, Samir is a highly regarded clinician and international expert in the care of older adults. As a former member of the Government of Canada’s National Seniors Council and a current member of its Minsterial Advisory Board on Dementia he helped to develop and now oversee Canada’s National Dementia Strategy and recently led the successful development of Canada’s new National Long-Term Care Services Standard.  

Internationally, he serves as an Adjunct Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the International Centre for Future Health Systems at the University of New South Wales.  Furthermore, as a longstanding member of the American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council and a recently appointed member of the Board of Trustees for HelpAge International, he remains committed to supporting the implementation and administration of unique, integrated and innovative models of geriatric care and support that reduce disease burden, improve access and capacity and ultimately promote health.

Dr. Dallas Seitz is the Chief of the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) where he also holds the Peter and Shelagh Godsoe Chair in Late-Life Mental Health Research. He is also a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto and the Director of the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry. 

He currently serves as Co-Chair of the Canadian Coalition for Seniors’ Mental Health and past president of Canadian Academy of Geriatric Psychiatry. 

He completed his undergraduate medical degree at the University of Saskatchewan (2003) and his postgraduate residency training in Psychiatry at the Queen’s University in 2008. He completed a research and clinical fellowship at the University of Toronto at Baycrest Centre and Women’s College Hospital. Dr. Seitz completed his PhD in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Services Research from the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto in 2014.

Dr. Anderson is a Senior Scientist, Director of the Ben & Hilda Katz Interprofessional Research Program in Geriatric and Dementia Care, and Associate Scientific Director of the Kimel Family Centre for Brain Health and Wellness in the Rotman Research Institute at the Baycrest Academy for Research and Education. She is a Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Medicine (Psychiatry) at the University of Toronto.  She is a registered clinical neuropsychologist.  Her research focuses on how memory is affected by healthy aging and mild cognitive impairment, and on cognitive and lifestyle interventions to promote brain health and reduce dementia risk.

Dr. Saskia Sivananthan, an internationally recognized strategy and policy advisor on dementia care, is the co-founder and CEO of the Brainwell Institute – a nonprofit dementia policy think tank.  She is also an Affiliate Professor at McGill University.

She was formerly Chief Research and KTE Officer at the Alzheimer Society of Canada where she oversaw a tripling of funding for dementia research, and created multiple platforms for people living with dementia to engage in research, advocate and co-design programming for their needs.  In 2020 she was appointed by the Federal Minister of Health to the ministerial advisory board on dementia.

Previously, Dr. Sivananthan served as a senior strategy and policy advisor consulting for the World Health Organization (WHO) on its overall global dementia strategy. Dr. Sivananthan co-drafted the WHO’s Global Action Plan on the Public Health Response to Dementia which was unanimously adopted at the 170th World Health Assembly by all 194 member-states. This plan served as the template for Canada’s National Dementia Strategy. It identified key priorities and established international goals to fight stigma and advance dementia care.