TREC doctoral student Stephanie Chamberlain was recently awarded the Alzneimer Society's Doctoral Award. Her research project is titled: Unrepresented Older Adults: The Impact of Public Guardianship on Resident Health and Care Needs in Long Term Care.

Stephanie's project proposes to examine the impact of public guardianship on health and care needs of older adults in long term care. Older adults under public guardianship are individuals in long term care facilities with little support from family or friends.

When a family member or friend is unavailable, an older adult will be appointed a government public guardian. Individuals under guardianship are more likely to have Alzheimer’s or a related dementia.

To understand the health and care needs of these older adults and the implications of public guardianship, Stephanie will conduct interviews with care providers. She will assess health outcomes and symptom burden using routinely collected resident data from three Western provinces.

As much is unknown about this population including their numbers, Stephanie will survey all 173 LTC facilities in Alberta to determine the number and unmet care needs of this group of older adults.

Stephanie hopes that her results will guide new interventions to improve practice for this highly vulnerable group.