Who are we?
Our Team
A group of family caregivers, persons living with dementia, and researchers across Canada working together to learn, advocate, and support each other.
Meet the Researchers
Assistant Professor and Investigator
Marie-Lee Yous, RN, PhD
Marie-Lee Yous is an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing at McMaster University. She is a recent award recipient of the Alzheimer Society of Canada. Her interest in dementia care research is inspired by her many years of experience as a Registered Nurse supporting persons living with dementia and their families on a Long-Term Care unit. She is passionate about pursuing research on Namaste Care to meaningfully engage persons living with dementia and family and friend caregivers. Her recent work was focused on collaborating with family caregiver research partners to adapt Namaste Care and evaluating Namaste Care in the community setting.
Professor and Investigator
Sharon Kaasalainen, RN, PhD
Sharon is Marie-Lee’s supervisor. She is a professor in the School of Nursing and the Gladys Sharpe Chair in Nursing in the School of Nursing at McMaster University. She is an Associate member of the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University. She is also an Honorary Professor at Queen's University Belfast. Her research focuses on improving pain management, palliative care, end-of-life communication, and quality of life for people living in long term care homes. Other areas of interest include exploring the role of nurse practitioners in long-term care and approaches to optimize this role to improve resident care.
Associate Professor and Investigator
Carrie McAiney, PhD
Carrie is the Schlegel Research Chair in Dementia and Scientific Director of the Murray Alzheimer Research and Education Program (MAREP) at the Schlegel-University of Waterloo Research Institute for Aging, and an associate professor in the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo. As a health services researcher, she works collaboratively with persons living with dementia, family care partners, providers and organizations to co-design, implement and evaluate interventions and approaches that aim to enhance care and support for individuals living with dementia and their family members, and to improve the quality of work life for dementia care staff.
Research Assistant and Medical Sciences Student
Ruthie Zhuang, BMSc
Ruthie is a medical student at McMaster University. She graduated from the Medical Sciences program at Western University. She is the co-founder and executive director of Students for Music and Wellness (SFMW) a non-profit that provides free musical recreation therapy for Long-Term-Care (LTC) residents across Canada and the U.S. Her experiences as a LTC volunteer have made her passionate about supporting and improving the mental well-being and care of older persons. Her research interests include involving patients and family caregivers as research partners and improving quality of life in long term care.