Imagine having a disease that affects your brain and slowly takes away everything you love. Your favourite memories slowly fade, and those who you once cared about become unrecognizable strangers. You have lost the ability to drive, read, cook and track your bank account. Your personality has changed, and any resemblance of your unique personal identity or accomplishments are lost forever.

This is dementia.

Dementia is an irreversible disease of the brain that impacts an individual’s cognition, functional ability and independence. As people with dementia live longer, they need more help from others. Planning is an important part of dementia care, and decisions about moving are important and often emotionally charged. A better understanding of the relationship between dementia and long-term care (LTC) within local communities is important to better inform people living with dementia (PLWD) and their caregivers. Research in this topic can be helpful, as our health system needs to accommodate an increasing number of older adults.

This study will examine the relationship between dementia and the need for LTC across Manitoba over the past 30 years. We will use health records gathered across the province and housed at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy. We can examine the journeys of older adults in accessing LTC and how long older adults live in LTC. Findings learnt from this study will be used to better inform PLWD, their caregivers, healthcare workers and other organizations in Manitoba.