Dr. Mel Bayly

Mel is a 2017 PhD graduate from the Psychology department’s Culture, Health, and Human Development program at the University of Saskatchewan. She is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow with the Rural Dementia Action Research (RaDAR) team, whose mandate is to strengthen dementia care in rural areas. Mel’s two core research areas are reproductive psychology and care/supports for persons with dementia and their caregivers. She has been working with RaDAR to examine patient and family experiences with assessment/diagnosis rural memory clinics, which were recently developed and implemented in partnership with primary health care teams. She is also exploring the role of the First Link coordinator within the rural memory clinics, and working with the Alzheimer Society of Saskatchewan (ASOS) to examine whether the format of initial contact with First Link (face-to-face during memory clinics, self-referred, or direct referred from a health care providers) affects the content and length of client contacts with the ASOS. Mel’s other current dementia-related work includes: a) a qualitative examination of financial consequences for families affected by young onset dementia; b) a systematic review on the effectiveness of early-stage (MCI or early dementia) intervention on caregiver wellbeing and ability to provide care; and c) an exploration of the physical, psychological, and social wellbeing of people with cognitive impairment who live alone using a dataset from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.