Faculty Profiles
CMU psychology professor awarded grant for dementia research
Dr. Heather Campbell-Enns, Associate Professor of Psychology at CMU and a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Families and Aging, has received a $200,000 grant co-funded by the Alzheimer Society of Canada and Research Manitoba for her work in dementia research.
Heather Campbell-Enns, PhD, has received a $200,000 grant co-funded by the Alzheimer Society of Canada and Research Manitoba for her work in dementia research. It will specifically support her current project, A Pilot Study of Ethnocultural Approaches to Family-Provided Dementia Care, which explores how caregiving is shaped by cultural knowledge, traditions, and intergenerational experiences.
Campbell-Enns is Associate Professor of Psychology at CMU and a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Families and Aging. She has been studying family-provided care for older adults, particularly in the context of dementia, for several years and has received funding from the likes of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and other organizations.
This latest award, the New Investigator Grant, is part of the 2025 Alzheimer Society Research Program (ASRP). It is meant to boost the careers of researchers who are in the first six years of their initial faculty appointment and doing vital work in their sectors. The ASRP annually funds dementia researchers across Canada through a variety of grants; In 2025, it distributed over $5.1 million to 37 researchers nationwide, with the assistance of donors and partners that collaborate on funding.
"I am grateful to the Alzheimer Society Research Program for this support," Campbell-Enns said. "This funding provides essential stability for a new research program, enabling me to hire research staff and trainees, and to offer honorariums to cultural experts and community participants who make this work possible."
Campbell-Enns' study aims to better understand intergenerational family-provided care for persons with dementia across different cultural groups, since caregiving is influenced by cultural knowledge, preferences, and resources. It will also test how feasible and suitable it is to use multiple research methods, such as family group interviews, to study these experiences.
Family members will be invited to collaboratively create and share digital stories about their dementia caregiving experiences from their cultural perspective. "Encouraging your family carers to describe their experiences for use in research leads to supportive programs and services for future families experiencing dementia," Campbell-Enns told the Alzheimer Society of Canada.
Her previous research on this topic includes a study she led on best practices for transitions from hospital to community-based settings for rural and remote persons with dementia, set in both Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador. Her research has produced articles for peer review journals, reports to government, and assessments for organizations.
Ultimately, her goal is to generate the design and implementation of services to support family-provided care. "By collaborating with communities, we can develop supports aligned with their needs and shaped by their priorities," she said.
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