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The Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Community has been actively participating in the ICARE research project, which is being conducted as a collaboration between the University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth Campus, the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, and American Indian and First Nation community members in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Ontario. The ICARE research project partnership aims to better understand the lived experience and impact Alzheimer’s disease, and related dementia has in the American Indian communities.
Little research has been done that sheds light on the everyday experience of American Indians or First Nations people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Research in this area is needed to examine the impacts of the disease as it progresses and determine what American Indians or First Nations people who are living with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementia and determine what they need for healthcare-related to dementia.
Collette Pederson, Community Researcher for Grand Portage, and her Grand Portage Advisory Board are pleased by the community’s response and involvement in the research. Many individuals have taken the time to be interviewed and provided us with valuable information and questions that provide us with a better understanding of what the community would like to see and what services are needed to help families dealing with dementia and Alzheimer’s.
The Advisory Board and Community researcher are active n the community. We helped host a bingo, Alzheimer’s/dementia walk, host an informational booth at the annual Health Fair, and host a booth at the local Farmers’ Market while answering any and all questions the public has. We are more than happy to answer questions no matter where we are. This is a community-based project, and we need your support with the goal of influencing change in our community health, systems, programs, or policies.
We will continue to be involved in the community and please feel free to contact Collette Pederson if you would like to be interviewed. We look forward to any information that may ease the ongoing and growing concern about dementia and help find services and programming to serve the community, individuals, and caretakers.
My gratitude to the individuals who have been interviewed. Your messages and information are vital to this project, and we appreciate your participation.
For more information, you may contact any of the following: Advisory Board Members: Emma Carlson, Patty Winchell Dahl, John Morrin, Becky Deshampe, Jennifer Sorenson, Mary Jo Harrelson, Shirley Stevens, or Community Researcher Collette Pederson at: colletteped123@gmail.com.
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