
Gentle Persuasive Approach
Gentle Persuasive Approach (GPA) training is an all-day evidence based training program that helps care providers deliver person-centred, compassionate care to individuals with dementia
The GPA material focuses on four key areas: personhood, brain and behaviour, the interpersonal environment, and gentle persuasive techniques. A variety .of educational tools are used such as videos, white board animations, interactive exercises, and sharing personal experiences in working with individuals with dementia.
Important teachings in this curriculum are:
Gentle Persuasive Approach (GPA) training is an all-day evidence based training program that helps care providers deliver person-centred, compassionate care to individuals with dementia
The GPA material focuses on four key areas: personhood, brain and behaviour, the interpersonal environment, and gentle persuasive techniques. A variety .of educational tools are used such as videos, white board animations, interactive exercises, and sharing personal experiences in working with individuals with dementia.
Important teachings in this curriculum are:
- Individuals with dementia are people first and foremost, with a unique history and a capacity for interpersonal relationships.
- All behaviour has meaning, and to understand the behaviour we must know the person behind the illness.
- The onus is on caregivers to try and understand patterns and triggers, and respond respectfully and confidently to the individual with dementia.
- Reframe behaviour as a response attempt to protect/defend yourself.
- Despite our best efforts, sometimes protective behaviours occur and caregivers need to learn ways to protect themselves and the persons with dementia to reduce injury.

Taking Control of our Lives Program
Click here to open a pdf of the Taking Control of our Lives Program brochure.
Click here to open a pdf of the Taking Control of our Lives Program brochure.

Living the Dementia Journey
This training program will increase understanding and awareness of dementia and the experience of living with it. It will build and enhance skills to support those living with dementia with compassion, dignity and respect. Click here for the Living the Dementia Journey flyer, and here for the website. Contact Ruth Wilford for more information, at rwilford@lakeheadu.ca or 766-7298.
This training program will increase understanding and awareness of dementia and the experience of living with it. It will build and enhance skills to support those living with dementia with compassion, dignity and respect. Click here for the Living the Dementia Journey flyer, and here for the website. Contact Ruth Wilford for more information, at rwilford@lakeheadu.ca or 766-7298.
Indigenous Cognition and Aging Awareness Research Exchange -- I-CAARE
The team at I-CAARE has been developing culturally safe factsheets with Indigenous people living with memory loss and their caregivers since 2014, based on a need identified in an earlier project, Perceptions of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias among Aboriginal people in Ontario.
Please note each factsheet has a blank space for you to add your own local organization's contact information. All factsheets also have pages in multiples of four, so that they can be printed both on regular printer paper or as booklets. The Path of Dementia prints best on 11" X 17" paper or larger.
The team at I-CAARE has been developing culturally safe factsheets with Indigenous people living with memory loss and their caregivers since 2014, based on a need identified in an earlier project, Perceptions of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias among Aboriginal people in Ontario.
Please note each factsheet has a blank space for you to add your own local organization's contact information. All factsheets also have pages in multiples of four, so that they can be printed both on regular printer paper or as booklets. The Path of Dementia prints best on 11" X 17" paper or larger.
- What is Dementia? Indigenous Perspectives and Cultural Understandings
- Signs and Symptoms of Dementia: An Indigenous Guide
- Preventing Dementia in Indigenous Peoples by Aging Well: Advice from Older Indigenous Peoples
- What to Expect after a Diagnosis of Dementia: An Indigenous Person's Guide
- A Medicine Wheel Model for Prevention (Manitoulin Island)
- The Path of Dementia