Memory clinic serves clients in over eight languages: Breakthrough Spring 2004

At the Centre

Anita McGann and Dr. Luis Fornazzari from the Multilingual Multicultural Memory Clinic assessing a client.

In 1991, Health Canada conducted the Canadian Study on Health and Aging. The study found that 13 per cent of older adults over the age of 65 were diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia.

Alzheimer's Disease is a complex condition in which brain cells gradually stop working as they should. Some common symptoms of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia include a gradual loss of memory, problems with reasoning or judgment, disorientation, difficulty in learning, loss of language skills, and decline in the ability to perform routine tasks. It is predicted that by 2021, there will be almost 600,000 seniors in Canada with dementia, and this number will increase to 778,000 by 2031.

At CAMH, it has been recognized that there is a growing number of clients whose first language is neither English nor French who have mental health needs, and many of these are older adults.

To address this need, CAMH's Neuropsychiatry program put the expertise and skills of its staff together in order to tackle the growing need for clinical assessment of memory problems in our clients' own languages and thus the Multicultural Multilingual Memory Clinic was born. The clinic was officially launched in January 2003 and is the first of its kind in Canada.

The clinic offers clinical services in English, French, Italian, Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese and Hindi, and works with CAMH's Cultural Interpretation Services to meet any additional language needs as necessary. Referral to the clinic is required from a client's family doctor. In addition to the clinical assessment of memory problems, the clinic conducts innovative research to understand how these problems begin.

"There is a growing aging multicultural population in Toronto and the GTA, many clients have difficulty in accessing services due to the language barrier and remain without a diagnosis or treatment," says Dr. Luis Fornazzari, director of the clinic and an expert in the treatment of Alzheimer disease and dementia. "This is a much-needed clinic in a growing diverse community where no other service of this kind exists."

For more information on the clinic or for referrals please call (416) 535-8501 ext. 2872 or e-mail <alexandra_salvarrey@camh.net>.

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