Alisa Grigorovich

Brock University · Department of Recreation & Leisure Studies

Healthcare providers caring for people living with dementia may experience moral distress when faced with ethically challenging situations, such as the inability to provide care that is consistent with their values. The COVID-19 pandemic produced conditions in long-term care homes (hereafter referred to as ‘care homes’) that could potentially contr...

During this interactive workshop, participants will be provided with knowledge on the use of wearable technologies for older adults with dementia in residential care settings. Using case studies, participants will engage in guided reflections on complex ethical questions, such as: If a person with dementia cannot consent to the use of wearable tech...

Ageism has not been centered in scholarship on AI or algorithmic harms despite the ways in which older adults are both digitally marginalized and positioned as targets for surveillance technology and risk mitigation. In this translation paper, we put gerontology into conversation with scholarship on information and data technologies within critical...

Healthcare providers caring for people living with dementia may experience moral distress when faced with an ethically challenging situation, such as an inability to provide care that is consistent with their values. The COVID-19 pandemic both created new and exacerbated pre-existing factors which contributed to the experience of moral distress amo...

Background Emerging international evidence indicates the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated socioeconomic and health challenges faced by transgender (trans) and non-binary populations globally. This qualitative study is among the first to characterize impacts of the pandemic on these groups in Canada. Methods Drawing on data from the Trans PULSE Ca...

The cover image is based on the Research Article Staff perceptions of the consequences of COVID‐19 on quality of dementia care for residents in Ontario long‐term care homes by Julia Kirkham et al., https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.5725.

Background People working in long-term care homes (LTCH) face difficult decisions balancing the risk of infection spread with the hardship imposed on residents by infection control and prevention (ICP) measures. The Dementia Isolation Toolkit (DIT) was developed to address the gap in ethical guidance on how to safely and effectively isolate people...

Background and Objectives Older adult social inclusion involves meaningful participation that is increasingly mediated by information communication technology (ICT) and in rural areas requires understanding of older adults’ experiences in the context of the digital divide. This paper examines how the multi-modal streaming (live, pre-recorded, blend...

Purpose Telerehabilitation, or the delivery of rehabilitation using information and communication technologies, may improve timely and equitable access to rehabilitation services at home. A systematic literature review was conducted of studies that formally documented the costs and effects of home-based telerehabilitation versus in-person rehabilit...

Despite the recognized benefits of sexual expression and its importance in the lives of people living with dementia, research demonstrates that there are multiple barriers to its positive expression (e.g., expression that is pleasurable and free of coercion, discrimination, and violence) in RLTC homes. These barriers constitute a form of discrimina...

Purpose: We aimed to synthesize the literature that considered frailty in the evaluation of rehabilitation interventions for adults (aged ≥ 18) by answering: (1) how is frailty defined in rehabilitation intervention research?; (2) how is frailty operationalized in rehabilitation intervention research?; (3) what are the characteristics of rehabilita...

Background: Long-term care (LTC) residents have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, both from the virus itself and the restrictions in effect for infection prevention and control. Many barriers exist in LTC to prevent the effective isolation of suspect or confirmed COVID-19 cases. Furthermore, these measures have a severe im...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and mental health and/or substance use challenges (MHSU) are commonly co-occurring and prevalent in individuals experiencing homelessness; however, evidence suggests that systems of care are siloed and organized around clinical diagnoses. Research is needed to understand how housing and housing supports are provided to...

Objectives People working in long-term care homes (LTCH) face ethical dilemmas about how to minimize the risk of spread of COVID-19, while also minimizing psychological hardship and other harms of infection control measures on residents. The Dementia Isolation Toolkit (www.dementiaisolationtoolkit.com; DIT) was developed to address the gap in ethic...

Purpose The present study aimed to evaluate the impact of a filmed research-based drama—Fit for Dialysis—and an exercise program on patients’ physical activity and fitness outcomes. Methods Nineteen (10 at the intervention site, 9 at the control site) older patients with a medical diagnosis of hemodialysis-dependent end-stage renal disease were re...

Limited uptake and use of developed technologies by older adults have prompted interest in participatory design and related approaches in the gerotechnology field. Despite this, recent systematic reviews suggest that researchers continue to passively engage older adults in research projects, often only in providing advice or feedback in the early o...

The rapid emergence of COVID-19 has had far-reaching effects across all sectors of health and social care, but none more so than for residential long-term care homes. Mortality rates of older people with dementia in residential long-term care homes have been exponentially higher than the general public. Morbidity rates are also higher in these home...

Background As the aging population continues to grow, the number of adults living with dementia or other cognitive disabilities in residential long-term care homes is expected to increase. Technologies such as real-time locating systems (RTLS) are being investigated for their potential to improve the health and safety of residents and the quality o...

As populations and life expectancies increase, interventions to enhance health, well-being, and quality of life become more intricate and more complex. Often, new health interventions and innovations designed to counter progressive age-related challenges never achieve a real-world impact because the product never makes it into real-world settings,...

Transdisciplinary working (TDW) is a new model of knowledge production that has emerged in response to a changing research environment in the late twentieth century. In particular, researchers are increasingly required to be accountable and responsive to social priorities and needs, and there is greater pressure to bridge their research with real l...

A transdisciplinary research approach is designed to address real-world problems, which are often so complex, multifaceted, and context-oriented that understanding and resolving them requires integrating knowledge from different disciplines and sectors. This chapter provides a brief overview of four transdisciplinary-approach-based strategies that...

Increasingly, researchers are working in teams with academics from other disciplines alongside stakeholders and partners (e.g., consumers, patients, caregivers, industry and financers, policy makers) from different sectors. This is especially true in large-scale and complex projects where the focus is on developing real-world solutions. For example...

There have been important advances in research on creativity that have provided a more inclusive view of everyday and ordinary creativity, including that of persons living with dementia. However, these developments are limited by a lack of engagement with scholarship on embodiment, relationality, and citizenship. We address these limitations by dra...

Background: Recent studies have started disentangling components of disturbed sleep as part of the post-concussive syndrome, but little is known about the workers with an injury' perspectives on post-injury sleep changes or what causes these changes. Objectives: To determine the effects of work-related concussion/mild traumatic brain injury (wr-...

Background and objectives: Dance is increasingly being implemented in residential long-term care to improve health and function. However, little research has explored the potential of dance programs to support social inclusion by supporting embodied self-expression, creativity, and social engagement of persons living with dementia and their famili...

Drawing on critical scholarship on sexuality, disability and gerontology, this paper examines representations of dementia and sexuality across recent North American, European and Australian news media sources. Attending to the affects mobilized within these representations demonstrates how they support the constitution of the sexualities of persons...

People with cognitive disabilities are commonly positioned as risky sexual subjects. This article discusses the discursive production of sexual normates in the form of desirable and normative able-minded sexual subjects, in scientific research on the sexuality and cognitive disabilities of younger and older individuals (in particular those with dem...

BACKGROUND As the aging population continues to grow, the number of adults living with dementia or other cognitive disabilities in residential long-term care homes is expected to increase. Technologies such as real-time locating systems (RTLS) are being investigated for their potential to improve the health and safety of residents and the quality o...

Older people, especially those living with dementia, experience significant barriers to meaningful participation in their communities. Focusing on the expansion of an arts-based program to address social inclusion for older people via information communication technology (ICT), this paper identifies the challenges and opportunities of the digital d...

We present the findings from a one-day, multidisciplinary meeting to gather feedback for an integrated knowledge translation research project addressing the integration of health services and supports for individuals with traumatic brain injury, mental health, and/or addictions; especially those who experience homelessness/vulnerably housed, inters...

Transdisciplinary research (TDR) involves academics/scientists collaborating with stakeholders from diverse disciplinary and sectoral backgrounds. While TDR has been recognized as beneficial in generating innovative solutions to complex social problems, knowledge is limited about researchers' perceptions and experiences of TDR in the aging and tech...

Increasing awareness of errors and harms in institutional care settings, combined with rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, have resulted in a widespread push for implementing monitoring technologies in institutional settings. There has been limited critical reflection in gerontology regarding the ethical, social, and policy implications...

Persons living with dementia and their carers experience stigma. Stigma intensifies social exclusion and threatens health and well-being. Decreasing stigma associated with dementia is a public health priority across national and international settings and is a key component of National Dementia Strategies. Research-based drama is an effective publi...

Despite that sexual harassment of care staff negatively affects mental health and occupational outcomes, limited research has explored this in the context of residential long-term care homes. This ethnographic study explored how female care staff (e.g. providers, supervisors) understood and responded to sexual harassment from residents within the r...

RÉSUMÉ La promotion des droits sexuels dans les établissements de soins de longue durée est complexe sur le plan éthique, étant donné que ce milieu est à la fois une résidence et un lieu de travail. Bien que les données empiriques démontrent que le bien-être des soignants professionnels et des résidents sont inextricablement liés, les politiques pu...

Background: Although work-related injuries are on the decline, rates of work-related traumatic brain injury (wrTBI) continue to rise. As even mild wrTBI can result in cognitive, behavioural, and functional impairments that can last for months and even years, injury prevention is a primary research focus. Administrative claims data have provided va...

Resident-to-resident aggression is quite prevalent in long-term care settings. Within popular and empirical accounts, this form of aggression is most commonly attributed to the actions of an aberrant individual living with dementia characterized as the “violent resident.” It is often a medical diagnosis of dementia that is highlighted as the ultima...

Introduction Although a growing number of frail adults can benefit from rehabilitation services, few are included in rehabilitation services, and reasons for their exclusion are not well understood. To inform research directions in rehabilitation for all adults (aged 18 years and older), we will conduct a scoping review to describe (1) the characte...

Although, exercise can improve the functional outcomes and quality of life of older patients with end-stage renal disease undergoing hemodialysis, it has yet to be promoted as part of routine care. Health care providers and informal carers rarely provide encouragement for patients to exercise, and the majority of older patients remain largely inact...

Although unwanted sexual attention has been linked with care providers’ negative health and occupational outcomes, limited research has explored this in the context of long-term care homes. The purpose of this ethnographic study was to explore how care providers in one home in Ontario, Canada understood and responded to unwanted sexual attention fr...

Purpose: Transdisciplinary research has the potential to enhance the real-world impact of the field of aging and technology. This is a context-driven and problem-focused approach to knowledge production that involves collaboration across scientific disciplines and academic and nonacademic sectors. To sustain broader implementation of this approach,...

Dance, as aesthetic self-expression, is a unique arts-based program that combines the physical benefits of exercise with psychosocial therapeutic benefits. While dance has also been shown to support empowerment, meaningful self-expression, and pleasurable experience, it is rarely adopted to support these aspects of engagement in the context of deme...

Background: Exercise improves functional outcomes and quality of life of older patients with end-stage renal disease undergoing hemodialysis. Yet exercise is not promoted as part of routine care. Health care providers and family carers rarely provide encouragement for patients to exercise, and the majority of older patients remain largely inactive...

Despite the critical knowledge base on dance from phenomenological analyses and somatic studies, dance scholarship and practice in the dementia field largely represents a movement towards cognitive science with an emphasis on embodied cognition and psychotherapeutic use of dance. This chapter argues that understanding and fully supporting dance, no...

Introduction This chapter offers a critical understanding of the use of dance as an arts-based approach whose creative-expressive power draws on the body's capacity for innovative action. Most importantly, dance, as a practice and field of study, embraces non-verbal communication, intersubjectivity, affect and embodied or somatic expression (Green,...

With the biomedicalisation and the pharmaceuticalisation of dementia, music programs, as with other arts- and leisure-based programs, have primarily been implemented as non-pharmacological means to generate social and behavioural changes. We argue that understanding and fully supporting the musicality of persons living with dementia requires engage...

Background Work-related head injury is a critical public health issue due to its rising prevalence; the association with profound disruption of workers’ lives; and significant economic burdens in terms of medical costs and lost wages. Efforts to understand and prevent these types of injuries have largely been dominated by epidemiological research a...

In the field of dementia, ethical issues have primarily been considered from a biomedical perspective, with a focus on norms for medical treatment and participation in medical research trials. The primacy of the biomedical approach to ethics in dementia has eclipsed a broader understanding of the cultural, political and philosophical assumptions th...

There is a growing literature that argues for the value of dance as an embodied practice for persons with dementia, as it draws significantly on the body’s potentiality for innovation and creative action and significantly supports non-verbal communication and affect. Despite the critical knowledge base on dance from phenomenological analyses and so...

Despite the important contributions the citizenship movement has made to improving the status and treatment of persons with dementia, it has not accounted for their sexual rights. Drawing on a new model of relational citizenship, we advance an ethic of embodied relational sexuality that importantly broadens the exclusive goal of biomedical ethics f...

Adopting a transdisciplinary approach to the development of technologies to support older adults and their care partners is crucial to bridging research with policy and practice. Despite increased popularity of this approach, research evaluating transdisciplinary processes and outcomes remains limited due to an absence of evaluative tools. This pre...

News media are an important source of information about dementia, and can influence public attitudes towards persons living with this disease. The purpose of this research was to explore public understanding of sexuality and dementia by investigating how this issue was represented in English language online news media sources (e.g. articles, editor...

A globally aging population necessitates innovative approaches for the development of technologies to ensure older adults age well. Whilst scientists across disciplines address a wide-range of ‘aging complexities’ through research and innovation, without appropriate integration of commercialization mechanisms, such outputs may result in little or n...

Background: Misperceptions regarding persons with brain injuries (PWBI) can lead to stigmatization, workplace discrimination and, in turn, influence PWBIs full vocational integration. Objective: In this study we explored how stigma may influence return-to-work processes, experiences of stigma and discrimination at the workplace for persons with...

Objectives: To understand how employment services (ES) are provided to persons with brain injuries (PWBIs) in Ontario, Canada, and the impact service delivery has on competitive-employment outcomes. Design and methods: A mixed-method case study of one community-based agency that provides specialized services to PWBIs. Relationships between demog...

Sexuality and intimacy are universal needs that transcend age, cognitive decline, and disability; sexuality is a fundamental aspect of the human experience. However, supporting sexuality in long-term residential care presents ethical challenges as this setting is both a home environment for residents and a workplace for health practitioners. This i...

Sexual citizenship and sexual rights scholarship have made important contributions to broadening citizenship and more fully accommodating rights related to sexuality. However, this scholarship has concentrated primarily on the sexuality and intimacy-related needs of younger people and those who are not cognitively impaired. Consequently, it has ina...

Objectives: Caring for community-residing patients with heart failure can affect caregivers' emotional wellbeing. However, few studies have examined caregivers' well-being longitudinally, or identified factors associated with positive and negative outcomes. The objective of this longitudinal cohort study was to examine changes in caregivers' well-...

Developing useful and usable assistive technologies often presents complex (or "wicked") challenges that require input from multiple disciplines and sectors. Transdisciplinary collaboration can enable holistic understanding of challenges that may lead to innovative, impactful and transformative solutions. This paper presents generalised principles...

Introduction To support implementation of the Inter-professional Guideline for Vocational Evaluation Following Traumatic Brain Injury we compared current practices to best practices as outlined in the guideline. Method We recruited health/vocational professionals who do vocational evaluation of traumatic brain injury survivors to participate in qu...

Objective: Little is known about sons' roles in caring for a parent with dementia. To ensure that interventions and practices appropriately match sons' needs, we investigated their experiences. Method: A qualitative descriptive approach was used; 20 sons of a parent with dementia participated in semistructured interviews. Results: Participants...

Despite evidence that older lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans* and queer populations (LGBTQ) face health disparities and unique health issues, limited research has explored the applicability of existing successful aging strategies and models to this population. Traditionally, health promotion efforts targeted to (younger) LGBTQ populations (e.g. promot...

To support AGE-WELL's objectives, and move the field of aging and technology forward, AGE-WELL will take a transdisciplinary approach. In this type of approach to research and knowledge production, scientists of diverse disciplinary backgrounds and individuals with experiential knowledge (e.g. industry, policy makers, end-users) collaborate togethe...

Young caregivers (e.g., aged 18-25) account for 12-18% of familial caregivers, however, few studies have explored their experiences. Although they may have similar caring responsibilities to older caregivers, they face unique challenges due to their transitional life course stage. We undertook an exploratory study to understand the caregiving role...

Research suggests that the experience of being a lesbian or bisexual woman influences women's interactions with health care providers, and their perception of the quality of care. Limited research to date, however, has examined how ageing and sexuality mediates women's experiences of quality, when accessing health care in the community. To fill a g...

To identify caregiver-, stroke survivor- and caregiving situation-related factors that are associated with caregivers' restriction from participation in their normal activities (i.e., participation restriction) over the first two years post stroke. Canadian acute care facilities, community setting for follow-up. A secondary data analysis of 399 car...

There is evidence that lesbians and bisexual women often face prejudice and stigma when accessing routine primary healthcare services. However, limited research to date has examined their experiences outside of primary healthcare contexts or the perspectives of older healthcare users. This paper presents findings from a qualitative study of older l...

This article reports on the findings of a study that explored older lesbian and bisexual women's access to publicly funded home care in Ontario. Recent health reforms have increasingly shifted the bulk of care of individuals from health care institutions to private homes and communities. Although these reforms have had consequences for all individu...

Purpose To develop an inter-professional clinical practice guideline for vocational evaluation following severe burn. Methods The Canadian Medical Association's (CMA) handbook on clinical practice guideline and the appraisal of guidelines for research and evaluation (AGREE) were used to develop the guideline. The following steps from the CMA handb...

Representations of transgender people in the media often trivialize and delegitimize transgender people’s lives, experiences and identities. It is therefore important for feminist and queer studies scholars to interrogate such cultural productions in order to reveal their underlying transphobic and cissexist discourses. The media ‘scandal’ generate...

Purpose: To review the empirical qualitative literature on cancer survivors' experiences of the return to work process in order to develop strategies for health and vocational professionals to facilitate return to work. Methods: A rigorous systematic search of five databases was completed to identify relevant qualitative studies published betwee...

To examine community reintegration following a hip or knee total joint replacement (TJR) from the perspective of rehabilitation clients. A phenomenological frame of reference guided the present study. Ten participants who received inpatient rehabilitation completed semi-structured qualitative interviews to explore their experiences with reintegrati...

The Canadian health care system's delivery and policies are often based on a heterosexual nuclear family model. Long-term care (LTC) policy in particular is built on specific assumptions about women and caregiving. Current health care and LTC policies can thus disadvantage and marginalize women who do not fit such constructions, such as older lesbi...

Purpose: A systematic literature review was undertaken to gather evidence to develop a guideline for vocational evaluation following burn injuries (BI). This review aimed to identify the key processes evaluators should follow and the key factors they should consider when completing such evaluations. Methods: Steps outlined in Cochrane Handbook o...

To examine neuropsychological functioning in survivors of electrical injury with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. This was a prospective research study that was done in an outpatient clinic of a rehabilitation hospital. Thirty participants were recruited for the study between January 2008 and December 2010. All participants comp...

Well-documented health research points to trans people's vulnerability to health inequities that are linked to deeply embedded structural and social determinants of health. Gender and work, as social determinants of health for trans people, both shape and are shaped by multiple factors such as support networks, social environments, income and socia...