Welcome
Our warmest thanks to everyone who took part in the 18th RaDAR Rural Dementia Summit held virtually. We were delighted that over 130 people logged in to the event platform, mainly from Saskatchewan as well as from other provinces and countries. Of the attendees who completed an evaluation, 63% had attended a previous Summit, while 37% were new guests. Many participants had multiple roles, with the largest group of attendees working directly with people living with dementia in rural areas.
Our keynote speaker this year was Dr. Kristen Jacklin from the University of Minnesota, a leading expert in community-based research with Indigenous and rural communities. Summit participants accessed a total of 3 live sessions, 7 pre-recorded presentations and 14 video posters. Feedback on the new one-day online format was largely positive, with participants noting the length was manageable while still accommodating a variety of topics. Evaluations completed by participants revealed several highlights from the event including the positive stories from presenters and a broad mix of themes, with many enjoying the overall length and format of presentations.
Participants shared that research often focuses on major urban centers, and they appreciated seeing what is possible in rural and remote communities. The Summit sessions featured novel research and initiatives ranging from the expansion of care farming in Canada to community-driven initiatives to support Métis people aging with dementia, how humour and laughter help create community, time perception and brain changes, mapping gaps in rural dementia research in Canada, and the role of the Alzheimer Society of Saskatchewan in funding and supporting research.
Generous support from the Bilokreli Family Fund since 2015 enables us to host the Summit without registration costs for participants. The funding also supports student poster prizes and a People’s Choice poster prize, which was a new feature this year. We are grateful for the support of the Bilokreli Family, which allows us to bring together those who want better care for rural people living with dementia and their families.
Summit 2025 planning team: Julie Kosteniuk, Duane Minish, Allison Cammer & Mira Bisso
RaDAR Co-Leads Julie Kosteniuk, Megan O'Connell, and Allison Cammer provided a RaDAR Research update and panel discussion. A recording of their session is available below in the Summit Session Presentations section.
Bilokreli Family Support
We are proud to be recipients of ongoing funding via the Bilokreli Family Trust Fund which supports the RaDAR team to continue hosting the Summit.
The annual Summit has helped build and maintain a community of practice focused on rural dementia care anchored here in Saskatchewan.
The Bilokreli Family has provided support to the RaDAR team since 2015. We are pleased to recognize their generous support each year with the Bilokreli Student Poster Prizes, and - new for 2025 - a Bilokreli People's Choice Poster Prize.
Poster Presentations
The online poster presentations were available early, before the Summit meeting start, to allow extra time for attendees to access and review the posters.
Listed below are the 14 Summit Poster presentations. Not all presenters chose to share their poster on this archive.
Within the listings, we have highlighted the three 2025 Bilokreli Student Poster Prize winners and the Bilokreli People's Choice Poster Prize winner.
The RaDAR team is the recipient of funding to support the team’s activities, generously provided by the Bilokreli family. The members of the Bilokreli family have an interest in supporting rural dementia research in the province, and we are pleased to offer three student poster prizes in their name to student trainees working in the field. Student poster prize winners are adjudicated by a panel of judges. For 2025 we also added a People's Choice award: each attendee could cast their vote in the poster competition, and the poster with the most votes won the award.
We're pleased to announce the winners of the 2025 Bilokreli Poster Prizes are:
- 1st Place Bilokreli Student Poster Prize: Andrea Johnson
- 2nd Place Bilokreli Student Poster Prize: Kelsey Haczkewicz
- 3rd Place Bilokreli Student Poster Prize: Sophia Wang
- Bilokreli People's Choice Poster Prize: Kristen Belza
From Diagnosis to Direction: Navigating Rural Primary Care Memory Clinics. As PDF
Authors: Alford H, Cammer A, Dupperon A, Morgan D, Levinton T, Cameron C, Kosteniuk J.
Presenter: Heather Alford & Amanda Dupperon
Co-developing a multidisciplinary delirium prevention pathway to reduce postoperative delirium in older adults with cognitive frailty.
Authors: Bayat A, AlQatan A, Dyck H, Avis K, Weinberger L, Ginther N, Aftab H, Surkan M, Thorpe L, O'Brien JM, Hedlin P.
Presenter: Ava Bayat
Bilokreli People's Choice Poster Prize
Care Farms for people living with dementia: The benefits of an Outdoor Day Program. As PDF
Authors: Belza K, Churchyard R.
Presenter: Kristen Belza
Exploring the perspectives of community-dwelling patients and care partners receiving nutrition care in a rural primary care memory clinic: Preliminary findings. As PDF
Authors: Cresswell B, Kosteniuk J, Kusch T, Dupperon A, Morgan D, Cammer A.
Presenter: Baylee Cresswell
Green Care Laurentians: Cultivating well-being and cognitive health through nature and gardening. As PDF
Authors: Richard-Frève E, Arsenault-Lapierre G, Girard C.
Presenter: Catherine Girard
Polypharmacy and 1-year prognosis in a Rural and Remote Memory Clinic cohort. As PDF
Authors: Grande-Sherbert E, Kirk A, O'Connell ME, Kortzman, A.
Presenter: Elliot Grande-Sherbert
Bilokreli Student Poster Prize 2nd Place Poster
SPA-LTC: Strengthening a palliative approach to Long-Term Care. As PDF
Authors: Haczkewicz K, Ottley KM, Kavia K, Atulaegwu W, Wickson-Griffiths A, Hunter P.
Presenter: Kelsey Haczkewicz
Nature-based dementia care: good practice principles guide. As PDF
Authors: Innes A, Dal Bello-Haas V, Dupuis C, McLeod M, LeBlanc Y, Marcuzzi D.
Presenter: Anthea Innes
Bilokreli Student Poster Prize 1st Place Poster
Agency over ageism: Music participation for people living with dementia. As PDF
Authors: Johnson, A.
Presenter: Andrea Johnson
Evaluating the Development and Implementation of the Dietitian Role on Rural Primary Care Memory Clinic Teams. As PDF
Authors: Kusch T, Cammer A, Cresswell B, Dupperon A, Wickett B, Fedusiak E, Klapak D, Morgan D, Kosteniuk J.
Presenter: Thera Kusch
Co-Designing a food literacy workshop series for rural, older adults in Saskatchewan: A research proposal. As PDF
Author: Leeder E, Froehlich Chow A, Kosteniuk J.
Presenter: Erin Leeder
Expanding the impact of the Driving and Dementia Roadmap through a national radio ad campaign.
Authors: Pilieci C, Naglie G, Stasiulis E, Rapoport MJ.
Presenter: Christopher Pilieci
Does age predict disease prognosis over one year in rural patients with dementia. As PDF
Author: Ravindran SG, Kirk A, O'Connell ME.
Presenter: Suganya Giri Ravindran
Bilokreli Student Poster Prize 3rd Place Poster
Does social media improve Saskatoon seniors’ psychological and cognitive wellbeing: A pre-pandemic inquiry. As PDF
Author: Wang SH, Briere JL.
Presenter: Haotong Wang
Summit Session Presentations
An agenda with suggested viewing order and times helped to organize the pre-recorded and live delivered session content. Interaction with each pre-recorded presentation was through an embedded chat panel beside the presentation where attendees and the presenter could share comments and ask and answer questions.
The live keynote presentation by Kristen Jacklin, and the two other live sessions were delivered in real time via Zoom Webinar and included a live Q&A session with the presenter. These live sessions were recorded and are shared below.
Here is a simplified agenda for Summit 2025, followed below by tabs with archived session recording from each Summit Session Presentation.
|
Day |
Start Time |
Session Name |
Type |
|
Tue, Nov 20 |
8:00 AM |
Poster Session - poster presenters have been asked to be online during this period to respond to messages about their poster |
Poster Session |
|
Tue, Nov 20 |
8:45 AM |
*LIVE* Welcome to Summit and Keynote Presentation by Kristen Jacklin |
LIVE SESSION |
|
Tue, Nov 20 |
9:35 AM |
Pre-recorded: Journey from Funding to Impact: How the Alzheimer Society supports Dementia Research - co-presented by Kaleta Strain and Joanne Michael |
Pre-Recorded session |
|
Tue, Nov 20 |
9:50 AM |
Pre-recorded: Understanding the current landscape of time in dementia - presented by Natasha Gallant |
Pre-Recorded session |
|
Tue, Nov 20 |
10:05 AM |
*LIVE* Lived Experiences Panel Discussion with Merle Wiley and Carolee Zorn |
LIVE SESSION
|
|
Tue, Nov 20 |
10:45 AM |
Pre-recorded: Alzheimer Variants - presented by Andrew Kirk |
Pre-Recorded session |
|
Tue, Nov 20 |
11:05 AM |
Pre-recorded: Brain Health and Dementia Research Landscape in Canada - presented by Juanita-Dawne Bacsu |
Pre-Recorded session |
|
Tue, Nov 20 |
11:20 AM |
Pre-recorded: Addressing Dementia in the Community of Île-à-la-Crosse, SK - presented by Sarah Oosman & Joseph Desjarlais |
Pre-Recorded session |
|
Tue, Nov 20 |
11:40 AM |
Pre-recorded: Humour and Laughter: Creating Community in the Dementia Context - presented by Elaine Wiersma |
Pre-Recorded session |
|
Tue, Nov 20 |
11:55 AM |
Pre-recorded: Green Care Farms: Canada's first care farm for people with dementia - co-presented by Rebekah Churchyard & Jessica Zufferli |
Pre-Recorded session |
|
Tue, Nov 20 |
12:10 PM |
*LIVE* RaDAR Research Update Panel co-presented by Julie Kosteniuk, Megan O'Connell, and Allison Cammer. Followed by Summit Closing Remarks |
LIVE SESSION |
|
Tue, Nov 20 |
12:59 PM |
Thank You - End of Summit Meeting and Evaluation |
Information |
This session was originally presented live as a Zoom Webinar - this is a recording of the live session.
Kristen Jacklin, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Biobehavioral Health and the Director of the Memory Keepers Medical Discovery Team – Health Equity (MK-MDT) at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth Campus.
After her presentation, there was a live Q&A session within the Zoom Webinar, moderated by Julie Kosteniuk.
Get in touch with the presenter: kjacklin@d.umn.edu
Kaleta Strain, the CEO of Alzheimers Society of Saskatchewan, and Joanne Michael, Director of Programs and Services with the Alzheimers Society of Saskatchewan co-present this session.
Get in touch with the presenters: kstrain@alzheimer.sk.ca and jmichael@alzheimer.sk.ca
Natasha Gallant, Assistant Professor, and Canada Research Chair in Aging and Long Term Care at University of Regina, presents this session.
Get in touch with presenter: Natasha.Gallant@uregina.ca
This session was originally presented live as a Zoom Webinar - the video posted is a recording of the session.
Join us for this Lived Experiences Panel discussion. Merle Wiley joins Carloee Zorn from the Alzheimer Society of Saskatchewan to discuss Merle's experience caring for her husband Dean who was affected by dementia.
After the presentation, there was a live Q&A session within the Zoom Webinar, moderated by Julie Kosteniuk.
Dr. Andrew Kirk, Neurologist and RaDAR Team Investigator, presents this session.
Want to learn more, get in touch with presenter: andrew.kirk@usask.ca
Juanita-Dawne Bacsu, Associate Professor at Thompson Rivers University and Director of the Population Health and Aging Rural Research Centre, presents this session.
Get in touch with the presenter: jbacsu@tru.ca
Sarah Oosman, Associate Professor, School of Rehabilitation Sciences at University of Saskatchewan, and Joseph Desjarlais, Research Assistant with Bridges Research Collective at University of Saskatchewan co-present this session with Elders from Île-à-la-Crosse, SK.
The presenters share their appreciation to the IleX Elders, Dorothy Dubrule, Louis Roy, Norma & George Malboeuf, for their willingness to share their stories with us for this presentation.
Get in touch with the presenters: sarah.oosman@usask.ca and jdd934@usask.ca
Elaine Wiersma, Associate Professor at Lakehead University, presented this session.
Get in touch with the presenter: ewiersma@lakeheadu.ca
Note: the presentation from this session is not archived on this page
Rebekah Churchyard, CEO and Founder of Green Farms Canada, and Jessica Zufferli, Owner/Operator of Meaford Green Care Farm co-present this session.
Get in touch with the presenters: rebekah@carefarmscanada.com & meafordgcf@gmail.com
This session was originally presented live as a Zoom Webinar - the video posted is a recording of the session.
Join us for a RaDAR team research projects update from RaDAR Investigators Julie Kosteniuk, Megan O'Connell, and Allison Cammer.
This session included a live Q&A session moderated with the panelists.
Get in touch with the presenters: julie.kosteniuk@usask.ca megan.oconnell@usask.ca & allison.cammer@usask.ca
Event Evaluation
All attendees were encouraged to complete a post-event evaluation of their Summit experience, with an incentive prize drawn from all who completed the survey.
The 2025 incentive draw winners were Natasha G. and Catherine G. who each received an Amazon gift card and a commemorative Summit 2025 reusable tote bag.
The event platform recorded that of the 172 initial registrants, 134 logged in. While not all registrants logged in to the event platform, some may have still joined the live-delivered sessions directly via the session links.
Seventy-two attendees completed the post-event Evaluation Survey.
-We are pleased to host both returning and new attendees each year! This year when we asked if this was their first Summit: 37.5% of attendees were first-time Summit participants, while 62.5% reported having been to at least one previous Summit.
-Attendees identified their role in a variety of ways:
-The poster session was generally rated positively:
-Attendees rated the impact of the entire Summit on a number of factors:
The evaluation also included open-ended questions about attendees experiences and recommendations.
We rely on the feedback we receive from the Summit evaluation survey to help us plan for the next Summit, as well as other RaDAR events.
Credit for survey response charts/images adapted for this section belongs to RaDAR team member Mira Bisso.
Here are some direct quotes from attendees which we are happy to share:
"Lots of diverse topics - liked that there was a lot of local content, but also an opportunity to see what other areas of the country are doing."
"I enjoyed the recorded aspect, it allows me to listen more than once before engaging in the chat with the presenters."
"I love all the innovative ideas and seeing the research."
"There is a significant amount of relevant and important research being done in Saskatchewan and elsewhere."
"It has brought forward some ideas to explore locally (ex. a care farm). As a dietitian I will also continue to look into the nutrition research and how these findings may impact my own practice."
"The element of Summit I liked the most was the live presentation by the spouse of caring for a person with dementia. I felt like it was my own situation."
"I’ve attended many virtual conferences, and this was by far the most interactive and user-friendly. It was easy to connect with others and stay informed about what sessions were going on."
[commenting on what the Summit provides] "A sense for what is possible in rural and remote communities. Often cities (especially University cities) end up being the research focus so that chance to see opportunities beyond major centers is so important."
"Dr Kirk is always fantastic. Keynote speaker was amazing. I love seeing the indigenous issues
included this year."
"All the presenters and materials are very relevant and it is amazing how much could be covered in the amount of time. Virtual truly opens up the opportunity to attend without actual outlaying costs opening it up to many."
Summit Attendees Map
As part of the registration process, and with attendees' consent, we 'dropped a pin' to visually represent the locations from which people joined the online Summit 2025.
Summit Games
During Summit 2025, an interactive game was held among attendees. Points were awarded for identifying answers to questions about some of the presentations, as well as points were awarded to those attendees who were most active on the platform, commenting to presenters and interacting with others.
The winners, with the top three points earned were:
1st place - Joanne M.
2nd place - Jennifer L.
3rd place - Deana C.