As Canada braces for a dramatic rise in dementia cases by 2050, researchers at Simon Fraser University are turning to an unconventional solution rooted in nature and community.

Anyone who has a relative with a form of dementia knows how challenging it can be, not only for the person living with it, but for their entire family and community.

If you don’t know someone with it, you likely soon will.

A recent study by Alzheimer Society of Canada, predicts the number of people living with dementia in Canada will increase by 187% by 2050, due to the aging of the population.

Almost one million Canadians will live with dementia by 2030, and more than 1.7 million by 2050, the society says.

It is timely then, that researchers at Simon Fraser University are looking at new and innovative ways to care for those living with dementia.

Traditionally, and despite the efforts of well-meaning staff and administrators, long-term care for those with dementia has been in a setting that is more sterile and institutional, with lots of patients in one facility and not a ton of access to the outdoors.

The Green Care Farm (GCF) model, which is more common in the Netherlands, melds long-term care with farm-related activities in a therapeutic setting.

The aim is to foster autonomy, cognitive stimulation, and emotional well-being for people living with dementia.

“When older adults, especially people living with dementia, move into long-term care homes, quite often they have limited or restricted access to outdoor spaces because of safety concerns and lack of appropriate onsite outdoor area,” says Habib Chaudhury, professor in the Department of Gerontology and SFU research lead, in a news release about the project.

“From an ethical perspective, such a situation challenges their human rights to have access to outdoors. On a functional level, this represents compromised mobility independence, which in turn, erodes their sense of autonomy and well-being. We want to understand how exploring that natural environment and taking part in activities, such as, horticulture—working with the soil, engaging with animals—can enhance their quality of life.”

New model for Canada

The GCF project at The Village Langley is part of a research collaboration between Chaudhury at SFU and Sharon Kaasalainen at McMaster University School of Nursing and is paid for in part by funding from the Government of Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund, the release states.

On its five acres, the private care—meaning residents pay out of pocket—village includes:

six cottage-style homes (with 13 residents each)
landscaped gardens
tree-lined walkways
bistro
general store
salon and spa
woodworking shop
community centre
abundant green space

Roots in the Netherlands

Chaudhury said there are more than 1,000 green care farms in the Netherlands.

They can be a family run farm that then pairs with an organization to operate the care home aspect.

“It started off with … adult day programs. And over the years, it became so popular and successful in supporting people living with dementia, they created a structure for people to live there,” he said, adding that he and others went to the Netherlands earlier this year to see how they could implement the green care farm lessons, ideas and principles in the Canadian context.

The Village Langley opened in 2019, one of only two such villages in Canada, and already had many of the elements of the model the researchers were hoping to create.

“We, meaning the research team, approached the Langley administration saying, ‘Would you be interested in embracing this and implementing something like Green Care Farm,’ which is happening in the Netherlands, with quite a lot of success,” Chaudhury recalled.

“They were very excited about this and they embraced this idea wholeheartedly.”

They didn’t have a day program, so that was something the research team brought in.

A village of one’s own

Chaudhury said two models are at play in the Langley example—the farm aspect, but also the village model.

“The idea of a village setting as a long-term care community is to create a more home-like community,” he told The Squamish Chief.

In the village model, the residences have far fewer people in each and it is like a typical home, not an institution, he said.

And there is the ability for residents to “go outside without any barrier and be outside and in outdoor spaces and have the independent mobility of being outdoors, with fresh air and walking—a connection with nature and so on.”

There are also other amenities residents would find in a regular or larger community. “You go to a ‘grocery store,’ you go to a ‘pharmacy,’ you go to a ‘theatre,’ so on and so forth,” he said.

The type of care is also different.

“Looking at the cultural background, life history, celebrating that, preferences, choices, autonomy, dignity. It's really taking a holistic perspective,” Chaudhury said.

Timeline of research

Beginning in the spring of 2026, the researchers will conduct regular semi-structured interviews or informal conversations with the residents, their families and caregivers, as well as staff and management. Social engagement and interaction farm-like aspects will be documented through direct observation methods and validated assessment tools developed in the Netherlands.

The research team will also collect data on residents’ mental health using standardized depression scales and assess sleep quality through structured questionnaires, the release states.

There are two main goals of the research, Chaudhury summarized.

“One is to understand the process of implementation of a green care farm model at Langley Village by the management and staff. So how much do they know about this? How are they implementing this? How are they educating the staff?... What kind of program are they doing? How are they bringing in the residents, the villagers, and the people from outside to participate in the whole process aspect of this?” he said.

“And the second part of the research project is really to understand the impact of this on residents' quality of life and staff care practices.”

Asked about how such a model can be staffed effectively, Chaudhury said part of the solution is that volunteers come in and are trained to help.

“That's what they have done in the Netherlands. Most of these projects are volunteers from the community. These volunteers are older adults who are coming in from the community and they are taking part in these activities and they're taking an important role in doing small group one-on-one interactions,” he said.

“So that is to be seen, but that's the plan.”

Chaudhury and his team are also taking part in a research project at the only other dementia village in Canada—Providence Living at The Views, a publicly funded facility, as part of Providence Health Care, in Comox on Vancouver Island.

Ideally, the farm and village model is expanded throughout B.C.

There is already some movement and interest in other provinces, such as Ontario and Saskatchewan.

He also had praise for other models that are at play by health authorities in other regions, including Vancouver Coastal Health.

“We can talk about green care farms as an important innovation, but there are other models as well,” he said.

“We have to do it in different ways. For example, Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, they are doing what we have been doing for a long time in many other settings, but they're doing it in more and more formal ways, creating what we call small care homes. Vancouver Coastal has engaged in that activity now, which is highly encouraging.”