Allison Alvares, Raymond Dominguez, Saskia Sivananthan, Alexandra Whate, Larry Chambers |
ABSTRACT – In 2019, Canada published its National Dementia Strategy (NDS). The NDS, along with the National Strategy for Alzheimer’s and Dementia Act and numerous provincial reports, highlight the need for care coordination for people living with dementia (PLWD) and their care partners. Despite being identified as a priority, care coordination has been imprecisely operationalized and implemented. To address this gap, we sought to operationalize a clear definition of dementia care coordination that policymakers can use to assess programs. We created a Care Coordination Assessment Matrix and Scale to identify initiatives that incorporate core coordination components. This matrix was validated against federally funded programs that did not include care coordination as a primary assessment criterion, as well as provincially funded programs that explicitly prioritized coordination. Our findings demonstrate that dementia care coordination can be explicitly defined and assessed to inform policy and funding decisions.
CITATION – Alvares, Allison et al (2026). From strategy to scale: a framework for operationalizing and evaluating dementia care coordination in Canada. Canadian Health Policy, MAY 2026. canadianhealthpolicy.com.
CREDENTIALS AND AFFILIATIONS – Allison Alvares, MHSc [1]; Raymond Dominguez, HBSc [1]; Saskia N Sivananthan, PhD [1,2]; Alexandra Whate, MSc [1,3];*Larry W. Chambers, PhD [1,4,5,6,7]
- The Brainwell Institute, Toronto, Ontario
- McGill University, Montreal, Quebec
- University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario
- Bruyere Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario
- McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
- Faculty of Health, York University, Ontario
- ICES, Toronto, Ontario