Dr. Pia Kontos believes in the power of the arts to support people to live well with dementia.
The Senior Scientist at UHN's KITE Research Institute focuses on challenging policies and practices that discriminate against those living with dementia and developing and evaluating arts-based and digital knowledge translation initiatives to reduce stigma, improve social inclusion and quality of care for them.
"The predominant assumption is people living with dementia don't have the capacity to be creative," says Dr. Kontos, who is also a professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. “However, we know through extensive research that dance…powerfully supports people living with dementia to be creative and to flourish.
"And flourishing should be a goal that we all have."
Dr. Kontos co-produced in 2023
Dancer Not Dementia, a short documentary film. It captured the power of a dance program for seniors – Sharing Dance Older Adults (SDOA) – to challenge the stigma associated with dementia, support social inclusion and enrich lives. It's told through the eyes of residents and staff at Alexis Lodge Dementia Care Residence and Cedarhurst Dementia Care Home in Toronto.
SDOA was jointly developed by Canada's National Ballet School (NBS) and Baycrest Centre in 2013 for older adults with a range of physical and cognitive abilities, including dementia.
Typically, dance programs in dementia care settings are provided as a therapeutic intervention for older adults. However, SDOA's goal is to provide a creative outlet for participants and opportunities for social interaction with other people living with dementia, staff and loved ones.
Now, Dr. Kontos will look to incorporate traditions from marginalized communities into SDOA through a $750,000 Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Aging Implementation Science Team Grant. Dr. Rachel Bar, Director of Research and Health at NBS is co-principal applicant for the grant.
This CIHR funding supports projects that evaluate the effectiveness of existing programs, services and models of care that show promise for those impacted by cognitive impairment and dementia. An important focus is improving equitable and inclusive access to care and support.
The three-year grant to Drs. Kontos and Bar will support SDOA efforts to partner with organizations in Black, Chinese and South Asian communities to integrate their cultural practices into its programming.
Training dancers from these communities to teach the adapted program is central to these partnerships.
"People living with dementia from marginalized communities rarely have their traditions honoured with art and leisure programming," says Dr. Kontos.
"It's important to align dance programs with the cultural traditions of these communities. Otherwise, the music and movements wouldn't reflect the experiences of ethno-culturally diverse populations, and the programs wouldn't be inclusive.
"We wouldn't be supporting their capacity to be creative or to be in relationships with others through dance. We would be falling short."
SDOA has already partnered with Alexis Lodge, Alzheimer Society of Canada, Baycrest, NBS, Indus Community Services, Social Planning Council of Ottawa, and Yee Hong for this initiative.
